


If a Bat met a Crow

by Silverwolf666



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, At least he tries, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Bruce doesn't think he deserves love, F/F, Jervis loves Jonathan, Jonathan loves Bruce and Jervis, M/M, No Man's Land, Protective Bruce Wayne, Protective Jervis, Rating May Change, protective jonathan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:14:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 53,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23721427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverwolf666/pseuds/Silverwolf666
Summary: It's No Man's Land, specifically, the Dark Zone; a place where partnerships can save people or damn them if you make the wrong one. Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, is not happy someone is stealing his hard stolen supplies but is happy when he gets a new partner from such a thing. Even if he has to be something of a guardian to a gargoyle, a human lizard, and a nerve manipulator. And Jervis just wants his March Hare back.
Relationships: Jervis Tetch/Bruce Wayne, Jonathan Crane/Bruce Wayne, Jonathan Crane/Bruce Wayne/Jervis Tetch, Jonathan Crane/Jervis Tetch, Selina Kyle/Bridgit Pike, Tabitha Galavan/Barbara Kean
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Bats, Crows, and Hatters

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I did it, I caved in and watched Gotham and it wasn't so bad once you got into it. I got this idea into my head and once I saw Jonathan and Bruce only have a few years separating them in age, and I always thought Bruce and Jonathan were fairly similar, which makes me sad there's not more fanfiction with these two. Now, I do not own Gotham, DC Comics. or anything else that may seem familiar.
> 
> I don't know how often I'll be able to update as my laptop is acting up; the only way I can get on the internet is with an Ethernet cable, which I don't actually own one, a co-worker loaned me one. For some bizarre reason, my laptop no longer recognizes my network, while my phone and laptop work just fine. Any computer whiz's have any thoughts on what I can do to fix this?

Jonathan Crane renamed the Scarecrow after his rebirth, or whatever you wanted to call it, was annoyed. He and his followers had stolen food and medicine from the Green Zone almost three days ago, and though the medicine had been left untouched, the food they had taken was being stolen back, and none of his people had the faintest idea how.

“So, for the second night in a row, a Phantom sneaks into my territory, sneaks past our patrol guards, knocks out the guards around the food, and takes back what we risked our safety to steal, is that right?”

“Yes sir, we were doing our best to keep a sharp lookout, but none of us saw anything. Not even a shadow moving.” Julian was Scarecrow’s second-in-command and didn’t frighten easily, hence why he was the one who spoke.

“Can you think of one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you and promote someone more competent to the role of second-in-command?”

“No sir, I can’t though, if I may make a suggestion for my replacement, I would recommend Sandra, as she apparently found out something about this phantom.” Scarecrow looked over at the one named Sandra and motioned her to come forward.

“What is it that you have discovered?”

“W-well sir, we know that he or she can somehow see in the dark as he or she knows exactly where to go, and what to grab; they’ve never taken what was ours, to begin with, only what we… procreated from the Green Zone.”

“The word you are looking for Sandra is procured, not procreated, and where is this leading to?”

“W-well, Paulie managed to turn the lights on for a moment, and when he did, the phantom, or whatever it is, threw its arms around its head and seemed to shriek in pain, before they managed to turn out the lights again, this time by disconnecting the generator. So, we know at least two things sir; one, is that the phantom appears to be sensitive to bright lights, and two, they most likely have an accomplice of some sort, as the phantom would not have been able to disconnect the generator whilst we were looking at him.” This got Jonathan to thinking about setting up a trap for their nightly specter, and since he didn’t have the time or patience to train Sandra to be a competent second-in-command, he decided to let Julian live for another night. That night, Jonathan himself hid in their storeroom, and so was privy to watching a being made of shadows slip in and take out two of the guards, but this time they were ready. Jonathan turned on the lights and an almost inhuman shriek cut through the air as the room became almost impossibly bright, their solar panels had been storing power for just such an occasion, and it was hurting this being who lived in the shadows. He could hear the others coming with the accomplice meant to disable the generator again if such a problem should arise, but he was surprised when another shriek was heard and watched as a third creature, this one with wings and a tail came swooping in, no doubt to help its comrades, but Jonathan was prepared, and the net that dropped on it was enough to cease any kind of rescue. He went to inspect these two when his men came in and to his surprise, they were handling a boy who looked to be ten, at the oldest and even then, it was a stretch.

“Bats! Demona! Let them go!” What odd names these beautiful creatures of darkness have, though as he reached the one who first broke in, he believed he understood the name ‘Bats’.

“Of all beings, I’d thought I’d catch tonight, I never thought I’d catch a billionaire trust baby. Welcome to the Dark Zone, Mr. Wayne.” Indeed there, on his back, eyes glowing a mean yellow, elongated fangs bared, was Bruce Wayne, a person who, according to the rumors, had had something horrible done to him when Ra’s Al Ghul had gotten his hands on him for the fourth time. Apparently, Ra’s had turned the boy into a vampire, and it looked like he had proof at last. He hardly needed Julian’s warning shout of boss to know something was behind him, and the blunt end of his scythe was enough to knock the wind out of it, and prepared to cut it down when Wayne shouted,

“No! Viper, reveal yourself so he can see you’re not a threat! Demona, power down, now!” Jonathan watched in interest as the creature in the net shrunk in size until, of all things, a little girl, possibly thirteen years old, still sporting the horns, tail, and claws of her more monstrous self but now more humanoid, was left and, the one who had snuck up on him became visible to the naked eye. Like the one in the net, this one did not look entirely human; the fact his skin appeared more as scales then actual skin and was greenish was a dead giveaway. This one appeared to be younger than the girl, older than the little boy, and could possibly pass for twelve in the right light. He hadn’t planned on children being part of the plan, but he was fascinated by the sight of so many monsters in his territory; he simply had to have the whole story. He managed to knock out Wayne and the reptile boy, with the others knocking out the girl but before the smallest boy could be knocked he shouted

“Wait! I know, you want answers, I know, that’s why you’re knocking us out instead of outright killing us but please! Please, listen to me because the sun is going to rise soon, leaving both Demona and Bats out of commission but please, please, keep Bats out of the sunlight! Without his sunglasses, the light hurts him and in direct sunlight, he could die, we don’t know for sure because he usually goes comma, comma, I don’t know what the word is but he looks and acts like he’s dead, he can’t move a muscle! So, we just follow the movies, you know? Keep him outta the sunlight, please.” Jonathan nodded and the youngest was knocked out. There was a closet off of his lab that he could keep Bruce in until sundown, and the others would keep the three little monsters safe until he and Bruce came to an agreement. He and Julian moved the unconscious vampire to his lab whilst Sandra and a few others moved the children to the area where they slept, it was a credit to their mettle that they weren’t overly disturbed by the reptile boy or the girl with the horns and tail. It took some time to get the Wayne heir situated in the closet, Julian even drawing what looked like a cross on the door, causing Jonathan to snort. When they came back out of the closet, he was surprised to see the sun was just finishing rising and turned to dismiss Julian when Sandra’s brother, Lance, came into the room.

“What is it?”

“Sandra sent me to inform you that while we were getting the kids secured, one of them turned to stone as the sun came up.”

“One of them what?” Julian asked, not believing what he heard.

“Turned to stone. It was the girl with the tail that did it; as soon as the sun started to rise, her skin turned to stone and we could no longer move her.” Jonathan decided to investigate this himself and so left for their barracks. It didn’t take long for him to get there, and when he did, he saw that indeed, the girl had turned to stone, and the boy with the scales seemed to be coming around. The younger members surrounded him, but he raised his hands in supplication.

“Easy little terrors; I’m standing, but my cousin is still out, my sister is stone, and that means the boss is comatose. My powers make me good for reconnaissance and fighting one, maybe two people at a time. Problem? I need to get in close to use my… natural weapons, same as your boss with his fear toxin and scythe. My scales would offer me natural defence against his scythe unless he lands a direct hit, but I have no defence against his toxin, and the boss made sure we understood to stay clear of it. So, no, I am not going to be a problem for you guys when you hold all the cards; I’m not a gambling lizard.”

“That’s good to know, Viper.” The boy turned at Scarecrow’s voice and kept his hands raised, which allowed him to see ten shiny claws that would no doubt leave more than a bad scratch.

“That’s my code-name for when I’m out on the streets, my birth name is Jason, Jason Kelly, that’s my sister, Molly, though she kind of prefers her middle name of Carrie, her code-name is Demona because, well, not to be mean but look at her. And the little guy? He’s our cousin, Tommy Brown, code-name, Shriek, and you know the boss.” Scarecrow stopped in front of the boy, willing to take a chance on the statement that he wasn’t willing to risk anyone on a dead man’s chance.

“I have heard how Mr. Wayne became a creature of the night, how did you three come to join him?”

“Well, that kind of begins before Gotham became No Man’s Land, you want the whole story or just the gist?” This close, Jonathan could hear something of a lisp whenever Viper said a word with an ‘s’ in it.

“Oh, the whole story, little serpent, but anyone who was on guard duty, get some rest, the Beta team can fill you in on our little nightmares.” The others moved away, whilst some new masks came forward.

“OK, well, our parents were your typical middle class that likes to put up a ‘perfect’ front but the minute we were behind closed doors? They were mean and nasty, always railing on Molly and me for not being ‘perfect’. Then, in a ‘brilliant’ move by social services, Tommy was sent to live with us whilst his mom was sent into rehab, again. Needless to say, with everything going on in Gotham at that time, this stressed our parents out to the extreme, to the point that early one morning, before the sun had even risen, when Tommy spilled a glass of milk on some ‘important’ papers of dear old dad’s, dad lost it, big time. Molly took Tommy to our room to protect him whilst dad started whipping _me_ with his belt as if I was to blame, but there was something in his eyes that time, something crazed like he _wanted_ to kill me this time and that thought; it caused my skin to get tough as leather, my nails to sharpen into claws, my teeth turned into fangs, and of course, the tail to sprout.

My mom started screaming as she looked me and went after me with a frying pan, causing Molly to come to my aid, and then the same thing happened to her, only different, you know? She got fangs, claws, and a tail too, but she also got wings whilst her skin turned grey and mine got this greenish hue to it and, oh yeah, she doubled in size. The downside to her powers though? She turns to stone when the sun rises, and the sun rose at the worst possible time. Mom raised the frying pan, ready to smash Molly, whilst dad was getting ready to stab me when Tommy comes out of nowhere, raises his hands, and next thing you know, mom is screaming in agony whilst dad is falling over himself and puking his guts out. It’s all pretty much a blank after that, I guess I passed out, because next thing I know, Molly is coming out of her stone shell, and Tommy has barricaded the front door, making sure no one could get to us. We heard on the news about the evacuation order and tried to get out of Gotham, but the bridges were blown before we could get across, trapping us here.” Viper, or Jason, looked like just telling this part took a lot out of him and took a moment to collect himself whilst looking at Molly and Tommy or, perhaps more appropriately, Demona and Shriek.

“How perfectly dreadful, but how did you come to join forces with Gotham’s resident vampire?”

“Well, the first week or so, we stuck close to our apartment, managing to fend off any looters thanks to our abilities; in addition to the… cosmetic changes… we are both a lot stronger than a normal human and we can take quite a punch before going down. Not to mention our ability to camouflage, climb walls and we can both see in the dark.”

“What about little Tommy?”

“Well, his ability is a bit more… sporadic, I think is the word. From what we’ve gathered, and the amount of comic books that little nerd has read, his is an ability called Nerve Manipulation. Through the comics he believes that there is little he can’t do, thankfully the Boss keeps him grounded in reality, making sure he doesn’t run before he can walk, but he’s learned a lot in almost three months.”

“And how did you meet ‘The Boss’?”

“Well, one night whilst we were outside, working on our powers, we were confronted by the Kill Gang, great name, I know. Anyhow, we did our best to fight them off, but we’re still little kids, even with our powers, and we were heavily outnumbered. Just when it looked like we were toast, all of a sudden this shadow comes out of nowhere and takes down five goons, no sweat. Then we heard the shadow ask one of the thugs if he knew where Jeremiah Valeska was, didn’t hear the reply but we heard the thug scream as the shadow man bit him. From there, we pretty much stuck to Bruce like flypaper, especially since he won’t go in the Green Zone.” That got Jonathan’s attention.

“He won’t? Why?”

“He got sick of everyone walking on eggshells around him, either treating him like a piece of glass, or a rabid animal that was going to bite them at any moment. He decided to take his chances out here, in the Dark Zone, where he found us which cemented his decision not to go back since even out here, people call Molly and me monsters, imagine what they’d call us in the Green Zone. Out here, no one looks at him like he’s a monster just because he sub- subs-, he eats blood, you know? They know he’s something different from them, something that won’t take their shit if they attack the defenseless, and that’s why they’re afraid. I don’t get what the big deal is; maybe my thought process was affected when I gained the features of a reptile, but to me, food is food, whether it’s meat, veggies, or, like the boss, a liquid diet. At least he doesn’t have to kill to get his nutrients, unlike carnivores and herbivores. Some nights, he goes looking for that psycho, Valeska, others, he’s training us to control our powers and how to fight.”

“Then why raid our storeroom?” Here, Jason squirmed, wishing Bruce was the one explaining this part but soldiered on.

“OK, to be fair, we only stole back what you stole first; we knew about your raid because that night Bruce’s friend, Selina Kyle, was in surgery to prevent her spine from turning into jelly and we were there to offer moral support from afar, or whatever it was when suddenly the lights went out for a moment. We went to investigate and saw your people stealing medicine, medicine that Miss Kyle might need after the operation.”

“So that was you as well.”

“Mostly just Bruce; he was worried about us getting hurt so we stayed out of the fight, and once the lights came on, we could hear people running to check on things so we vacated pretty quick.”

“So my people should starve so the ‘good’ people of Gotham don’t go hungry?” This actually seemed to offend the little reptile as he replied,

“We may look like monsters, but we are not heartless! We stole back what you stole first, gave it back to the Green Zone, and we were going to replace it from our supplies!”

“Bruce was going to let three children go hungry?” Jason didn’t have to see Scarecrow’s face to hear the contempt and disbelief.

“It’s not like we eat a lot, to begin with; reptiles can go long periods without food or water, Molly gets most of her nutrients when she’s in her stone state, we don’t understand it, but she needs very little, and Tommy’s mother was a drug addict, you think he got fed frequently? And, as I said, Bruce survives mostly on blood these days so, yeah, to negate the need for you to raid the Green Zone again, we were going to replace your supplies after we had finished taking back what wasn’t yours, to begin with, we just couldn’t do it as a kind of swap because Bruce always told us to be in and out.”

“If what you say is true, then take three of my men to your location so our supplies can be replenished,” Scarecrow stated, watching the young meta-humans reactions.

“Now?”

“Right now.”

“I can’t right now, what if Tommy wakes up and I’m not here? He’ll freak!”

“I will handle him.”

“What if we get jumped along the way?”

“My people are not unaccustomed to fighting and, as you said, you are stronger than the average human.” Jason sighed at that.

“Alright, fair’s fair, and the boss gave orders, so I’ll carry them out, just give me your word that you won’t hurt Molly or Tommy while I’m gone.”

“You have my word, but why do you keep calling her Molly when she prefers Carrie?”

“Mom always smacked me when I called her Carrie, I’m still getting used to calling her by her preferred name. Alright, pick three of your more trustworthy followers and I’ll lead them to our home where you can restock your supplies.” Jonathan motioned three of his followers to go with the boy and make sure he stayed safe, as he did not want anything to threaten what could be a very lucrative partnership between himself and another nightmare. Jonathan watched as Paul, Louis, and Charlie escorted the young meta-human out into the sunlight, watching as he pulled his hood up to hide his less than human appearance.

Jonathan remembered the first time he read about the possibility of people being born with unique abilities, it was only a couple years before his father started his experiments, and he had been most interested in it. He could also recall reading that what seemed to be a common factor in these abilities surfacing, was a powerful surge of adrenaline, such as being in a life or death situation, such as Jason described. Jason’s powers had come to the surface when he honestly feared for his life, giving him the durability of a reptile. Carrie’s first response to Tommy’s accident was to put him someplace out of harm’s way, then come to her brother’s aid when he was in danger; judging from what he saw and what Jason described, it seemed like Carrie was like the mythical Gargoyle, a nocturnal creature that always needed to protect something to give its life meaning. Then, there was Tommy, a boy who probably very seldom felt in control, if those fading bruises were anything to go by, and probably the only people he cared about were his cousins and to see them in a life or death situation…

He decided to take Tommy with him back to his lab; there were many hours till sundown so he didn’t need to worry about Carrie freaking out, and his men would know to report back to him when they got back so Jason would know Tommy was with him. He set Tommy down on a pallet he slept on when he was exhausted enough, then went on with his experiments, trying to strengthen his toxin, to see if it could cause a person to actually die from fright. He once again got caught up in his work and had just finished jotting down some notes when a soft voice spoke up behind him.

“Mr. Scarecrow? Is it safe to ask you a question?” Scarecrow turned and saw that Tommy had woken up, and appeared to have been up for some time before speaking; bright boy.

“You were wise to wait until I was finished writing, but yes, it’s safe.”

“Where are Viper and Demona?”

“Carrie is safe with my followers in our barracks, whilst Jason has gone to pay back what you stole from us. Aren’t you going to ask where Bruce is?”

“Oh, I know where Bats is; you put him in the closet where he’ll be safe from the sun until near sundown when he can come out if you board up the windows. I always know where he is because he and I are connected.”

“What do you mean, connected? Surely not in the same sense as Jeremiah?”

“Of course not; Valeska is a mental case, straight up, I am a meta-human that helps Bats however I can, and in return, he gave me an amulet that lets me call for him in times of need. Not that I need to very often; I’m almost always either with Demona or Viper, who in turn is almost always with Bats, and I have a good enough grip on my powers that I can make people sick enough to run away or fall asleep.” Tommy seemed to be something of a chatterbox if left unchecked.

“I thought Jason mentioned something about you causing pain as well?”

“I’ve only managed to do that once when Demona was in danger from her psycho mother. I know I can do it, but Bats wants me to take it slowly, to make sure I don’t lose control, so he had me focus on the simpler stuff, like making people doze off or puke their guts out. He’s the vampire and our leader, so Viper just tells me to do as he says, but I’ve been working on another part to help out, one I think even Bats will approve of, once I’ve got a real grip on it, but it’s a surprise.”

“I notice that you refer to your cousins and said leader by their code-names, why?” Jonathan knew how kids could be with secrets, so he decided to save himself the headache on finding out what this other aspect was.

“Why do you go strictly by Scarecrow? Your power comes from a chemical, outside source, but you still go by your villain name.” Tommy was proving to be just as odd as Jervis had been, and as much of a chatterbox.

“I feared the Scarecrow, then I became my fear. I am The Scarecrow.”

“I never really got to fear my powers as they saved my cousin’s lives as well as my own, but I get where you are coming from; I’m not the same Tommy Brown who was dumped on his aunt and uncle by uncaring social workers four months ago. I am now something better, something stronger; even when Gotham rejoins the mainland, Bats has promised me I won’t go back to an apartment where they make drugs that make me feel nauseous, where the boyfriend of the month kicks me around like garbage or uses me as a human ashtray. When I’m strong enough, I’ll help Bats hunt down Valeska, and make him pay for hurting Selina, Alfred, and everyone else that Bats cares about. I am not scared little Tommy Brown anymore, I am Shriek.” Scarecrow felt like if he and Jervis had a child, this would be it; he had Jervis’ tendency to go on for a bit, but that conviction to be more than what he once was? Pure Scarecrow.

“On the other hand, if Jeremiah hadn’t of given Bruce to Ra’s Al Ghul, you would be without a mentor right now.” Tommy’s eyes flashed at that.

“Maybe not in the sense that he’s physically different from the _normal_ people of Gotham, but Bats was always meant for more than just being another Gothamite who walks around like an ostrich with his head in the ground. When he saw his parents murdered in that alley, he began a meta- meta-, you know, when one thing becomes another.”

“Metamorphosis.”

“Yeah, that, it started changing him mentally; he told us about it as a kind of bedtime story kind of thing. But, whether becoming a vampire was really part of his destiny or not, I just know Bruce was meant to be Gotham’s knight, her Dark Knight, and therefore, a mentor and protector to anyone who truly needed him, like we did that night.” Scarecrow was highly interested in this, but he felt he would get more straight answers from the bat in question than a highly devoted fan-boy who probably latched onto Wayne as a sort of father-figure.

“You mentioned an amulet, where would Bruce have gotten such a thing?”

“Well, you see this is where things get a little more complicated; when Bats killed Ra’s the second time, a few of his followers started following Bats instead, seeing it as proof that he is meant to be the new leader. Bats has told them more than once to get lost, but they keep following him, as well as being an extra set of eyes, and they teach all of us stuff. They teach us different kinds of fighting styles, but also maths, sciences, history, anything that they think we should know, which you can guess is a lot. One of the things that Demona and Bats took a real shine to, was the study of the mystic arts so Bats made this amulet for me so that he knows where I am, and I know where he is.” Well now, wasn’t that interesting?

“If that’s true, then why didn’t they appear when you were all in danger? Why haven’t they shown up since you were all captured?” Jonathan asked, wondering if he should be worried about a horde of assassins lurking about.

“Bats told them that they can _only_ interfere if we’re in a life or death situation, so they must believe that whatever it is you want, you don’t intend to kill us. That, and they could see this as a sort of training exercise where we have to figure our own way out; they can be major dicks like that, cool, but still dicks.” Jonathan felt a tad uneasy as a thought occurred to him

“And they won’t be angry or try to kill my men for taking some of their supplies?”

“You know, that’s one of the strangest things? They never eat with us and they never eat from our storeroom, saying that they tend to their own needs; how they do it, we don’t know, but they are never hungry around us, and they don’t stay with us, they train with us at night, but once the sun begins to rise, they leave until the next night. Besides, my cousin wouldn’t lead your men into a trap when you have his cousin and sister in your clutches; he prefers to play things safe.” That went with what Jason had said earlier, about not being a ‘gambling lizard’.

“So, even though Bruce doesn’t want them, they stick by him?” Here, Tommy shrugged as he replied

“They often say that most people don’t know what they really need until the time comes, only what they want; Bruce wants them gone, but he needs to get stronger and the three of us need to learn how to control our powers as does he. They have agreed not to help him though in finding Valeska, saying that the one who was hurt the most, should be the one to take him down, though Bats is rather firm in his ‘No Killing’ policy.” No wonder Jerome was so obsessed with the ‘poor little rich boy’; he was proving to be the most interesting person in Gotham.

“So, what all can he do?” Tommy started counting on his fingers.

“Well, there’s the stuff that’s in all the comics; you know, strength, speed, agility, that’s all enhanced. He can see in the dark but, for some reason, he has trouble turning it off so if he’s exposed to bright light without any warning, well, you saw last night and the night before what happens, it seems to hurt him. He can heal from just about anything with blood and rest, though we are not sure just how far that extends, to be honest. Though I will say that I’ve noticed when he consumes a lot of blood, he does seem to be stronger and heal faster.”

“Can he turn others into vampires?” That would be advantageous for Scarecrow if he could make his followers true creatures of the night.

“Not that I’ve seen but again it’s hard to tell; he only takes a few mouthfuls per person, and sometimes, on patrol, we’ll see them a day or two later looking pale, but no real difference. Demona feels that there are two possibilities; one, he would need to drain the donor to the brink of death, then almost immediately replace the blood he’s taken with his own blood to infect the newer cells with the vampiric ‘virus’ or something like that. Demona is very into biology and can explain her theory a lot better than I can. The other possibility is that, because Bats was turned into a vampire through genetic engineering as opposed to being turned by another vampire, he can’t turn others; he’s uh, what’s the word? Seral.”

“I think the word you are looking for is sterile.”

“Yeah, he’s that.” Scarecrow sighed and figured he’d have to do something to increase the boy’s vocabulary somehow. Then asked,

“Does he have any other powers?”

“Well, those are the ones he’s been working on, but he’s a genetically engineered vampire, who can tell just what he can and can’t do? Not even his bodyguards know all that he can do, and they’ve been actively training him for almost two months! Like, in one comic I read, it said that vampires can turn into bats, wolves, and swirls of mist to move about their enemies unseen. In another comic, it said that they can control the weather so that, in times of emergencies, they can blot out the sun so they can move in the daytime. And in another comic, it said that vampires can read minds and control those with weak wills, turning them into their slaves. And this other comic-”

“I get it, I get it; with so much literature and other sources out there, he could have literally almost anything. Do you ever shut up?”

“So far, the only person who can do that, apart from a pair of real monsters, is the Boss; even the League have a hard time getting him to shut up for more than five minutes,” Jason said as he and the three others came in, and Scarecrow could hardly believe his eyes when he looked at just how much his men had been able to collect. Three and a half bags of canned foods, ramen noodles, soup cans, rice, he was certain he even saw some dried fruits and dried meat in there.

“This is from your storerooms? And you won’t go hungry without it?”

“Nope; as I said, none of us eat a lot to, begin with so you might as well have it, especially if it keeps you from stealing from the Green Zone again. The Boss may not care for most of the people who live there, but he’s got a soft spot for Captain Gordon, not to mention Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth are both in the Green Zone. So, when the sun goes down and Carrie and Bruce wake up, can we go?” Scarecrow managed to tear his attention away from the dried apple slices and dried apricots and answered,

“I want to talk to Bruce when he wakes up, after that, if you wish, you can leave.” Jason sighed, but nodded, he could tell that Crane was highly interested in Bruce so he had a feeling about what the talk was going to be about. To be honest, though, Bruce could use more companionship, especially his own age since he refused to go around Selina, he actively avoided Alfred, and he did his best to avoid Captain Gordon meaning, apart from three young meta-humans, the only ones Bruce conversed with were The League of Shadows members. Jason, ironically, was the most human of the trio Bruce had taken under his wing left; Demona saw normal people as a whole other species and saw _their_ survival as more important than the ‘worthless humans’, and Tommy, who had spent his life terrified, in pain, and sick from the fumes, he saw his powers as a chance to dish out some justice he had been denied. Bruce was helping them direct those feelings towards those that actually deserved it, while also instilling his own ‘no killing’ rule, and reminding them that, at their core, they were still human. As for the League members, they often argued over Bruce’s policies stating that sometimes, killing was necessary; one time it got so heated, Bruce almost chocked a League member. The one Jason knew was called Charlie came forward after dropping his supplies off at the storeroom.

“Come on, you two, you should head back to the barracks and leave the Scarecrow alone.”

“OK, come on Tommy, maybe we can get some actual sleep for once.” Tommy huffed but ran to his older cousin.

“I keep telling you, Viper, to call me Shriek.”

“I call you Shriek when the Boss has a mission we need to carry out, not when we are about to go to sleep while Carrie is a home for the pigeons and said Boss is stiff as a board.”

“But I am Shriek just as you are Viper.”

“We are also still Tommy and Jason, now quit arguing or I’m going to tell the boss that you didn’t sleep today and he won’t let you go on tonight’s raid.” The mention of a raid sparked Jonathan’s interest, and he resolved to ask Bruce about it.

“OK, OK, no need to get nasty. Oh, and Mr. Scarecrow?” Tommy turned back around and Jonathan looked back at him.

“Just a friendly little reminder that Bats usually wakes up about an hour before sundown, since you wanted to talk to him.” Tommy and Jason then left, with Charlie making sure to lead them straight to the barracks. Jonathan went back to work on his experiments, making a point of telling Paul to give him a heads-up when sundown was an hour away. It seemed like he had only been working for an hour, when Paul did come in, telling him that sundown would be soon. He got up, went to the closet, and opened the door just enough for him to squeeze through, then shut the door and sat to wait, though it wasn’t for very long as Bruce started moving.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.” Bruce groaned a little at the comment, hoping beyond hope that it had been a bad dream.

“Where are Carrie, Jason, and Tommy?”

“Safe and sound with my followers, with the boys catching some sleep, and your little Demona a statue.”

“Good, I’m afraid the boys seldom get enough sleep since they take shifts in watching over Carrie and me; I’m defenseless and stone may be hard to smash without proper tools, but it’s not impossible.”

“Don’t trust your assassins with the job?” Bruce groaned at that,

“They are not mine; they belong to the zealot that helped a madman cripple Gotham, and turned me into a monster. I keep telling them to buzz off, but they keep refusing, even when I gave them a direct order to do so, saying that whilst I was their leader, I was still in the early stages of being said leader, and therefore did not know what I truly wanted. Then we came across the kids and I found a use for them since the kids wouldn’t stop following me either and it was pretty obvious the kids needed help with their powers.” Jonathan could sense this was indeed a delicate subject so decided to drop it for the moment

“Jason also paid back what you stole from us.”

“Which you stole from the Green Zone first, but now everything is square, though I doubt you’ll let us go without a fight.”

“Why fight, when we can help each other, Dark Knight?” Here, Bruce looked confused as he was finally awake enough to sit up and really look at Scarecrow.

“So, it’s obvious you’ve spoken to Jason, but I’m guessing you also spoke to Tommy, since he and the League are really the only ones who call me that, well, that and Bats.”

“Tommy is something of a chatterbox, isn’t he?” Bruce shrugged as he replied,

“He’s a good kid, though since he wasn’t allowed to talk much with either his mom or his aunt and uncle, I guess he’s making up for lost time or something. He’s quiet when he needs to be, so I don’t much care. Now, you were saying something about us helping each other; how would we do that?”

“Simple really; you four would stay here, and we would watch over the two of you while you’re vulnerable in the daylight, whilst also keeping Tommy and Jason safe. You said yourself, those two spend the day alternating between sleeping and keeping an eye on you two, this way, they are relieved of that responsibility.” Bruce snorted at this.

“Right, you just take on the obligation of looking after a vampire, a gargoyle, and two pre-adolescent meta-human boys out of the goodness of your heart? Forgive if I find that a little hard to believe.” Jonathan could understand the refusal to believe such a thing since, if the grapevine of Gotham was to be believed, Jeremiah was hardly the first person to betray him.

“Well, to repay such kindness, you and your assassins could teach my followers to be better fighters and more aware of their surroundings; as you no doubt noticed, they could do with a little… shall we say, experience?” Jonathan himself would, of course, be partaking in these lessons as well as, though he relied largely on his toxin and scythe, some were not as affected, case in point, the man sitting in front of him had been under the influence of his toxin but had managed to fight it off.

“I told Demona when she asked and I’m telling you now; I will not teach your people how to kill.” How disappointing, but…

“I think that would be up to our instructors, don’t you?” Bruce shook his head at this and replied with a slight groan as he moved,

“They may be pains in my ass about not leaving me alone, but all other issues, they only listen to me, meaning if I tell them to teach you non-lethal techniques, that is what they will teach you and no amount of asking or bribing will change their minds. I am also going to forbid them from helping you with your toxin, as I think it’s potent enough as is, I am not going to help you literally scare people to death.” This made Jonathan look over at him in surprise.

“How did you know about that?”

“You have been less than twenty feet from me all day, and your thoughts are a little on the loud side when it comes to your chemicals.”

“Tommy said you didn’t know if telepathy was an ability you possess.”

“I’m not sure if it’s full-blown telepathy; it starts off as emotions and if I focus hard enough, I can look and see the thought process, it’s very complicated, but I can least tell who means me harm and who doesn’t and you, for some reason, don’t want to kill me or even hurt me. You seem to honestly want an alliance of some sort, though I don’t understand why.”

“I would think it obvious, baby; nightmares should stick together in these dark times.” Bruce scoffed at this.

“I’ll grant you, we may both be nightmares, but I don’t want what you want; you want people to be afraid, to revel in their fear, I want to take the fear away. I’ve experienced fear, and beyond that, terror, I don’t want people to feel that way.” What a noble little vampire his potential partner was.

“You have to know that’s impossible, people will always be afraid, they have to learn to live with it.”

“Yes, but it’s what they do with their fears that matter; you think the only way to deal with your fear is to become it, but that would mean a person who fears being raped would rape others first, so they can always feel in control, and those who been raped, would have to commit greater atrocities to regain their lost control.”

“And your solution?”

“Try this scenario; a family with a five-year-old has just brought a new baby home and, understandably, the parents are hesitant to let the five-year-old too close to the new baby, kids aren’t always as careful as they should be. Still, the five-year-old can’t contain its curiosity forever so, while the parents are otherwise occupied, the five-year-old sneaks into the nursery to really look at its new sibling. However, upon entering, they see something else enter the nursery looking for an easy meal; a rat. Now, said five-year-old doesn’t know if this rat is a meat eater or one who is a vegetarian, but what they _do_ know is two things; they are terrified of rats, and this rat is dangerously close to the baby. The five-year-old has two choices; run for its parents, leaving the baby alone with the rat, or get rid of the rat himself, and as it thinks about it, the rat is getting closer and closer to the baby. Finally, in a moment of blind panic, they pick up the rat, hurl it out the window, slams the window shut, and just holds the baby close, even while the parents are trying to figure out just what’s going on.”

“You realize most kids would have just screamed for their parents, right?” Bruce looked down after a moment and replied,

“I didn’t scream until it was all over; I was too afraid.” Jonathan conceded with the rebuttal,

“I screamed for help in the asylum and no one helped me either.”

“We’ve both been hurt by this city because of failed systems and corrupt peoples; my parents were killed on the orders of the Court of Owls, Arkham, which should have tried helping you and those like you, just drugged you until you were quiet enough so they could laze about in peace. Then you were sold to some criminals who, at least according to Captain Gordon, caused you to have such a violent episode that your mind adjusted the only way it could, causing you to practically merge with your fear.”

“Yes, and Galavan, who promised the people protection, tried to kill you as some sort of sacrifice for a ridiculous reason. Face it; the city doesn’t want to acknowledge the nightmares it creates, just wants to sweep them under the rug where it doesn’t have to look at them. I mean, look at you only a few months ago when you were tearing through the city on one long bender; anyone who cared to really look could see you were suffering through some kind of emotional trauma, but all everyone said was it was teenage hormones roaring through your body and, with no parents to rein you in, you were simply exhibiting extreme teenage rebellion. But you see, that’s why the two of us should work together, we know what Gotham really is underneath.”

“Yes, but we want different things, things on opposite ends of the spectrum.”

“And who’s to say which one of us is right, and who’s wrong? Do you really want to spend whoever knows how long we’ll be separated from the mainland just training, learning, and hunting down Valeska, all the while feeling guilty for what you feel you should have stopped, but couldn’t? Whereas, with us as allies, partners even, we’d be able to help each other; you have, what? Three meta-humans and how many assassins?”

“Four that I talk to regularly, and I’ve seen three others help the kids with their powers.”

“So three meta-humans, all of whom are pre-teens and seven assassins; Valeska has an army of psycho’s and a lifetime’s knowledge of how to hide when he doesn’t want to be found, how much of a chance do you think you’ll have of finding him without some real help? Whereas, if we combine our resources, your skills, and my numbers, as well as my toxins, you could have a real shot, no pun intended.”

“Why do you care about taking down Jeremiah? I thought you two were allies once?” Jonathan waved the comment away and replied,

“I gave him some fear toxin to use on you because I was curious how you would react to it, but he has none of his brothers style or charisma, so, while he’s good at spreading fear and chaos, I have no desire to play second fiddle to a man who can’t even kill one police captain with a _bomb_. Let’s face it, baby, if you can’t kill a particular target with a bomb of all things, you don’t really deserve the hype that’s been given to you.”

“You failed at killing Gordon, twice, I believe.” Jonathan hated having his shortcomings brought up but replied,

“The first time, I relied too heavily on my fear toxin and the efforts of others to get the job done, and the second time, he got lucky when he hit that steam valve that just so happened to be aimed at my face.”

“I have to admit, I’m surprised you didn’t hit me with your toxin at your failings being flung in your face.”

“Would it even have worked? I thought vampires didn’t have to breathe seeing as how they are technically not alive anymore.” Bruce looked contemplative as he thought it over.

“Technically, you are right; I don’t need to breathe anymore, we found that out when some lunkheads who thought Tommy was easy prey threw him into that deep lake in the park, too deep for Jason to retrieve him. We had yet to test just _what_ kind of reptile he had taken his form from; different reptiles have different abilities as you are no doubt aware of, some can climb walls, some can generate poison, and some can survive a long time underwater such as turtles and many members of the Crocodilia family. Tommy only knows how to dog paddle, he was flung too far out, he hadn’t eaten that day despite all our prompting; he sank before Carrie could attempt to swoop in and grab him from the sky and with those wings, she’s not very good at swimming, too much resistance. So, I ordered her and Jason to keep the rest occupied while I swam for Tommy and while did I get him out, he wasn’t breathing. I tried giving him CPR but, though it looks like I’m breathing, I actually have no breath, and that was when I reluctantly realized I needed the League’s help in things other than physical.

I was so frightened and the other two, they are just so strong and so am I, what if, as we tried to push air into his lungs and the water out, what if we cracked his ribs? What if, in their haste to save Tommy, Carrie or Jason perforated his skin and possibly his organs? But Michael, that’s the ‘leader’ of the League that follows me, simply came out of the shadows and performed CPR, saving Tommy’s life. This was after what seemed like the millionth time I told them to leave me and the kids alone but, I had to admit it then and there; I needed human help but I couldn’t go to the Green Zone for it. Alfred is the closest thing to a father I have left, and while I believe that he personally would have no trouble with the kids given time, I know the other refugees wouldn’t be so accepting of them. Those three need me a lot more than I needed the help of anyone from the Green Zone, but I did need help; the League is not… unaccustomed to dealing with meta-humans so…”

“So you accepted their allegiance in return for their help; seems like a fair trade. And they’ve been helping you train as well as acting as teachers for other subjects?”

“They’ve all told me that they were not told _all_ of what the serum that did… _this_ to me was supposed to do; it was tested on other League members before it was given to me, Ra’s wanted to make sure the stuff wouldn’t kill me as he saw me his… successor, his, hell, he actually called me his heir more than once. He knew what Jeremiah was capable of and he used that to give me a reason to accept my destiny as he saw it, by turning me into something that wasn’t human. I still refuse to become the new head of the League of Shadow, but Lukas, he was one of the chemists who at least knew _of_ the serum, even if he wasn’t told what it was for exactly, warned me that it affected League members differently. One person developed pyrokinesis, and another person mutated into some kind of deformed being that they had to put down. The point is, Lukas, checked my blood not long after I was given the serum to see how much it had changed? There wasn’t much difference just minor differences from how it was before. Back then, all I could do was minor things; I was only a little stronger than I had been before, a little faster, able to see in the dark, stuff like that. Then, almost a month later, I found the kids while looking for Jeremiah and they refused to leave me either, much like the League, so I had Lukas check their blood in case anything happened and they needed a blood transfusion or anything like that. I also had him check theirs against my blood, just in case it could either hinder them or help them, and Lukas told me my blood had mutated since the first checkup. A few hours later, and I could hear everyone’s heartbeats all around me like some kind of sonar or something.

So, yeah, even though I was injected with the stuff that made me what the old countries call a vampire over three months ago, my body is still going through changes that no one understands and no one can predict so we simply… take things as they come and hope that at the end of the night, as I enter that catatonic state with someone else’s blood on my tongue, I am still something like the Bruce Wayne from five months ago, where my biggest concern was making sure Jerome didn’t kill anyone when you all escaped because that would have been on my shoulders. After all, I had the chance to kill him and end his reign once and for all, but I couldn’t do it, even when not a single person in Gotham would have blamed me. _This_ is what you want as some kind of partner? Not someone who revels in their power as you do, but someone terrified of it? A brooding vampire?” Bruce and Jonathan held eye contact at the end of his somewhat long speech.

“Just so long as you don’t sparkle in the sunlight, I’ll take brooding any day over _sparkles_.” Bruce broke out laughing at that, causing Jonathan to smile beneath his mask before chuckling as well, sensing it had been a good long while since Bruce laughed like that.

“We’re not entirely certain just _what_ would happen if I hit the sunlight, but I’m fairly certain I don’t _sparkle_ as those that did, did not apparently feel the same kind of exhaustion I feel. As the sun begins to rise I just feel myself getting more and more tired until, just as the sun begins to make an appearance over the horizon, I lose all consciousness, though, at the same time, I remain aware of my surroundings. I don’t quite understand it myself.” Jonathan shrugged as he stood up and replied,

“Maybe it’s a self-preservation thing, you said that your emotional telepathy thing lets you know who wants to hurt you and who doesn’t; maybe if you sense someone with ill intent around you, you can awaken earlier than an hour before sunset. Speaking of which, we should make our way over to the barracks so your three little monsters know how things are now.”

“Hang on a minute, I haven’t said yes yet!” Bruce protested as he went to stand, only to knock his head on a shelve above him. Jonathan went to laugh, only to realize just _what_ was about to drop on his new partner, and he quickly grabbed the jar. Even if Bruce was something of a reanimated corpse ( _had_ he died when the serum caused the transformation?), he was fairly certain acid would do _something_.

“In your own way, you already have,” Jonathan replied as he put the jar back and helped Bruce stand up.

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about it, whenever you realize you need something, you acquiesce to its presence.”

“Listen, I’m very groggy when I come out of that state, hence the rambling, please just talk plain and don’t emulate The Riddler. Also, do you think you could take off your mask for a few minutes? No offence, but the respirator in your mask is hurting my ears; for the first half-hour after I wake up, most noises bother them.” Jonathan thought about it for a moment, then shrugged before reaching up, pulled down the locking mechanism, and pushed up his mask before speaking again.

“Ouch, that was just mean, baby. Alright, what I mean is, you wanted a reason to get out of the Green Zone where they ostracized you, then lo and behold, you found three kids out here in the Dark Zone that needed you that would never be accepted in the Green Zone. Secondly, you wanted to train and learn to be better but were in short supply of teachers, only to accept the League’s help when you realized you needed human help. Don’t you see? You want people to be in your corner, to have your back, but the kind you need isn’t found in the Green Zone who play by some kind of moral code that’s only going to get you killed out here where Jeremiah rules. You need the ones who will rip and tear and do whatever is needed to win because it’s what is truly needed. Let Gotham have Gordon as its White Knight, and you will take the role of her Dark Knight, and we’ll see just who takes the board in the end.”

“Why would you care about that when you just want to see the city burn?”

“Because I am bored with how things have become, and I have heard the rumors of a quartet of monsters in the Dark Zone and I wanted them on my side ever since I heard the story of some kind of… human crocodile patrolling the streets. Maybe you’ll come around to my way of thinking, maybe you can reach the last drops of scared little Johnny Crane and pull him back out. All I can see is that it is going to be fun to watch it, and you have to admit it would steam Jeremiah to know that of all the forces thriving out here, you picked someone that wasn’t him as your partner.” Bruce had to admit it, that _would_ steam Jeremiah if he found out about it somehow, which wouldn’t be too hard.

“But still, why a partnership? You’ve been doing just fine on your own.”

“‘Just fine’ is all well and good for people who are happy where they are and don’t want anything more; I’m tired of Jeremiah being top fiddle while being a cheap rip off of Jerome when I am so much better, but even I would have trouble getting close enough to him to strike him down without help. Whereas, for you, he would take his first opportunity presented to him to drug you and bring you to him. But, with us working together, you would have extra help and my followers would be taught how to really fight; the night before our raid, two of my people were attacked by the same Kill Gang that attacked your kids the first time you met them. Only one got away, and it cost him his big sister; I doubt you want to hear what they did to her. Many of my people are teenagers who were either orphaned by the city’s ineptitude or, like yours, abandoned when the bridges blew, so they cling to me for protection, but I can’t be with them all the time. If they are to embrace their fears they need to be strong enough to do so on their own, and for that, I need people who can teach them how to fight.” Bruce sighed as he admitted it to himself; Scarecrow’s numbers would protect him and the kids during the day, and he rightfully couldn’t ignore people who needed help. Yes, they worked for Scarecrow, but that didn’t make their lives worth any less than those in the Green Zone; even if they were taught some Judo and given tips on pressure points, they would be a lot better off than now.

“You swear you’ll keep Carrie, Jason, and Tommy safe when I can’t?”

“Promise.” Bruce grabbed Jonathan’s bicep and squeezed ever so slightly, making Jonathan wince; Bruce wasn’t kidding about his strength.

“Swear it.”

“Jeez, you have a protective streak a mile wide, don’t you baby? Alright, I’ll swear it on the only thing you’d probably accept; I swear on my parent’s graves, I will not let anything happen to Carrie and Jason Kelly or Tommy Brown. And in return, you help me make my people stronger however you can.”

“I will help your people become stronger, but only through non-lethal means. I’ll admit I can’t stop them all from killing, but I’m not going to teach them better methods at doing it. Is that acceptable?” Bruce never broke eye contact as he offered his terms.

“Perfectly acceptable baby, when can you start teaching them?” As he opened the door and let Bruce out, he was happy to see that Paul had covered the windows.

“I’d like to say right away but we have something to do first.”

“Jason mentioned something about a raid.”

“I guess he used it to make Tommy behave or something? Well, we are going someplace no one else has managed to scrounge so, if nothing else, we may be able to find some clothes or bits and pieces we can repurpose. If there’s enough time when we get back, we might start with some basics, or we could probably leave one or two League members here and they could do some assessments.”

“Where?” Jonathan asked as they stepped outside and he replaced his mask, glad that his area was covered mostly in shadows at this time of day so Bruce was in no danger.

“Some ritzy apartments in the Green Zone, their owners were some of the first to be evacuated after all so we don’t have to worry about anybody living there.”

“What makes you say that? Several apartments were raided for supplies not long after the bridges blew.”

“These ones weren’t, people paid through the nose for protection on these places, which included special kinds of locks that need electricity to open, especially the top three levels. Trust me, with the kind of locks these places have, no one can get in once they are locked and bolted.”

“Then how do you plan to get in?”

“As much as I would like to say we are getting in with our wits, the truth of the matter is our brute strength trumps that of normal humans by quite a bit.”

“And how do you propose we get into the Green Zone? I believe Gordon will have done a better job with sentries after our last excursion.”

“‘We’? Who says you are going?” Jonathan gave Bruce a particular look as if to say ‘what do you think’?

“Alright, there are two apartments on the top level and four on each of the two below that. From there, there are I believe six apartments on each floor, but I believe our best bet is the top levels as their security is much stronger so scroungers would have been unable to get to them. I suggest you bring three additional troops in addition to yourself as, until I have more faith in our partnership, I would prefer it if the kids weren’t outnumbered. Now, how good are you at scaling and jumping rooftops?” Before Jonathan could answer, they entered the barracks to see Jason was standing near Carrie, waiting for the last rays of sunlight to disappear. Tommy, seeing Bruce awake, perked up and came over to him but before either said anything, Bruce noticed just how close Jonathan’s men were to Carrie and spoke up.

“I wouldn’t stand that close to her for two very good reasons, one of them being she can be in a bad mood when she first wakes up, and it’s in no way improved if she is surrounded by strangers when she awakens. The other reason is that when the sun goes down, her outer stone shell will break off from her, not simply fade away, and it’s the equivalent of dropping a lit cherry bomb in a toilet; the stone fragments simply go all over the place. They are usually small pieces, but still stone and therefore still dangerous.” The others looked at Scarecrow as though to ask if they should listen to the ‘phantom interloper’ that had caused them more than a few bruises, but he just nodded, especially as the sun just finished setting. At the strange sound that was almost like the cracking of an egg, Jason quickly grabbed two of the closest people to Carrie before running for cover. After the cracking started, it wasn’t long before Carrie broke out of her shell with a loud roar that had many jumping in fright or covering their ears. Bruce stepped forward so that Carrie could see him and know that they were in no danger. Once Carrie’s eyes came into clear focus, she looked around her and could honestly say she was less than thrilled at the sight.

“Something tells me I’m not going to like whatever it is that has been decided while I was asleep.”

“I’ll explain on the way, but for now, just think of it as you and I have better protection during daylight hours. Not to mention Tommy and Jason can actually _sleep_ during the day instead of taking turns between sleeping and watching over us.” Carrie hated that she had to depend on others, let alone people she didn’t even know, for her safety, but couldn’t deny the idea of her brother and cousin getting real sleep was appealing.

“We’ll eat, and then we’ll go,” Jonathan stated, reminding Bruce that he was now with humans that may need to eat at least once a day.

“I don’t have to eat your food, so I’ll go talk to the League members and figure things out with them. Jason, you nor Tommy ate last night so grab something now or you are both staying behind.” Jonathan left instructions with Julian before going out with Bruce and Carrie.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Carrie asked Jonathan as he followed them back outside but Bruce put his hand on her shoulder.

“Ease up, Carrie, The Scarecrow and I are partners now and it’s only right that he meets the -”

“You called for us, Dark Knight?” Jonathan just about had a heart attack when suddenly, seven people he had never seen before came out of the shadows and stood before Bruce, Carrie, and himself.

“I’ve told you a thousand times to stop calling me that.”

“And you’ve told us to get lost at least ten times as much as that, so I would suggest just accepting we are calling you that or Master.” One of the younger males with short brown hair and very dark eyes responded with a smirk on his face.

“Kindly behave yourself, Jeremy, the Master is to be respected at all times.” The eldest male, who had snow-white hair and a British accent, scolded the younger male.

“I don’t know how you know when I want you Michael, but please stop bickering so I can explain things because they have changed since last night.” Bruce looked pretty exasperated as he looked at his assassins like they were naughty children.

“We have surmised that you have agreed to a symbiotic partnership with the Scarecrow, a wise decision Master as he has proven to be both intelligent and cunning in the past. He is lacking in the physical combat department, but I am certain we can bring him up to par, as well as his followers in return for his protecting you and the young ones during the day.” A new man spoke up, this one appeared to be of Indian descent, though he had rather startling blue eyes.

“I swear you people have me wired for sound with the way you know these things. Yes, Lukas, that is what has happened and yes, I would like those of you who are willing to teach his followers how to fight so they have better chances of surviving out here. And yes, before anyone asks, the same rule applies to them as it does the trio; you do not teach them how to kill.”

“With all due respect, Master, the ones we kill tonight are the ones we don’t have to worry about tomorrow.” A lovely young Japanese woman spoke up from the shadows as she stepped out of them.

“I won’t deny that, Tatsu, but this is my code, and if I am truly stuck with the seven of you, I ask that you respect it and not teach either my trio or Scarecrow’s followers otherwise. I accept that, as they are not my followers, they may feel their only option is to kill, and I can hardly stop them if I’m not around, but I won’t have it from my group.”

“I do not understand how you can adhere to that one point, Master, when the lowlifes you spare could just as easily kill you instead of showing you mercy.” A truly gorgeous woman of Asian descent, Jonathan couldn’t tell just which nationality she was in the dark, spoke up, and she had an aura about her that just screamed ‘fuck with me and I will shove your balls down your throat without detaching them first’.

“That is the point, Sandra; if we kill, then we are no better than them. But, I can’t stop you seven from killing anyone, and I can’t stop Scarecrow’s people from doing it either, all I ask is that you don’t teach it to them. I have respected that you all often feel the need to kill just as I hope you will continue to respect my wishes regarding the training.”

“We live only to obey master, though we wish to know if you intend to go ahead with your hopeful raid tonight?” This male was shorter than the others and was somewhat plain-looking, but Jonathan had a feeling he had better try to keep an eye on him; beautiful people stand out in a crowd, but plain people can stab you right in the chest and you’ll never notice them.

“Yes, Adrian, after Scarecrow’s people are done eating, we’ll make our way to the Green Zone, and I want four of you to come with us while the other three work on some basic skills like disarming with Scarecrow’s men.”

“Excuse me, Master.” Jonathan waited for the last assassin to appear but soon realized there was nobody there now.

“Erik’s gone to grab the intruder who was listening in on our conversation for the last five minutes,” Bruce explained.

“How do you know that?”

“Bruce’s hearing is a lot stronger now, to the point that he can hear the heartbeats of those around him so I’m guessing instead of hearing nine heartbeats clearly, he heard ten,” Carrie explained as she flexed her wings, eager to get on with the nights’ activities. Bruce nodded at this explanation just as the seventh assassin reappeared and was holding a struggling male but they were unable to get a good look at him until something fell from his person. It was a top hat.

“Tetch?” Bruce asked as he moved Carrie behind him even though Carrie would prefer to rip his throat out before he could speak.

“Jervis? Let him go, he’s harmless.” Erik made no move whatsoever to do as Jonathan wished and instead clamped his hand over Tetch’s throat, making it hard for him to breathe, let alone speak.

“Hardly harmless, he’s killed countless people just by talking to them,” Bruce replied, remembering just the kind of chaos the Mad Hatter caused just over a year ago, let alone when he escaped with Jerome and Jonathan.

“To be fair, Mr. Wayne, it was Jim Gordon who failed to save those- ack!” Jervis whined as Erik tightened his grip at the mention of Gordon, knowing the Master still had a soft spot when it came to the good Captain.

“Before Jervis says anything that will piss everyone off, let me amend my prior statement by saying he is harmless to his allies, one of which is me.”

“That’s all well and good, but he is not _my_ ally,” Bruce replied, making sure not to look Tetch in the eye, and he was glad Erik had a grip on his throat to restrict his speaking.

“In a sense, he is, as he and I never officially stopped being allies, even after Jerome’s death, and since you and I are now partners, he is, by extension, your ally.”

“Officially stop being allies? What, do you go to city hall and say, this asshole stabbed me in the back, I never want to be associated with him again?” Carrie asked as she looked at the man her mother had been deadly afraid of because Tetch seemed able to compel people to do whatever he wanted and she worried about being… _compelled_ into _unsavory_ acts. ‘ _As if he would have ever gone for that hag, all one had to do was watch the news to see he preferred blondes, and perhaps a certain scarecrow_ ’ Carrie thought, relishing in the jab against her mother who always acted like she was Rita Hayworth while badmouthing Carrie’s plain looks. Technically, she couldn’t fault her mother’s thought process, as Jervis Tetch was quite a handsome man, even more so since he trimmed his hair in Arkham, but Tetch would never have gone after someone as plain-looking as her mother in any sense unless she was simply collateral. They hadn’t even been caught in Tetch’s ‘radio trap’ as Jason called it since their bastard of a father refused to let them listen to the radio after seven, and they never got to listen to the station Tetch had taken over, only allowed to listen to chamber music.

“Never mind that Carrie, are you saying, that Tetch is part of this deal you made with me?”

“Is that a problem, baby?” Carrie barely held her snort as someone called her leader, a fearsome vampire that was quickly becoming something of a scourge to thieves and other lowlifes, baby. She saw Jeremy’s smirk get oven bigger at the nickname.

“Let’s just say I have trouble trusting a man who can take away your will power as well as Mr. Tetch can.”

“Jervis, will you please explain to Bruce what you are doing here and why you are no threat to him?” Jervis motioned to the hand still at his throat, to which Bruce motioned Erik to ease up.

“If I hear one word that sounds like you are trying to hypnotize the Master, I will break your clavicle, understood?”

“Perfectly, my good man. Well, I, I admit that I didn’t realize I had wondered into your territory, Jon, but I was hoping to find something to eat, and when I heard voices, I investigated as one did indeed sound like yours and I was hopeful that… I would gladly help out however I can, to earn my keep, if you and the young Jabberwocky will let me stay?”

“While I’m glad you’re not rhyming, I have to ask, what the hell is a Jabberwocky?” Bruce asked, looking quite confused, though Carrie appeared to be contemplating something.

“A Jabberwocky, Dark Knight, is a creation of Lewis Carrol’s that, in addition to the Jubjub Bird and the Bandersnatch, are all vicious animals that everyone in the world of Underland are taught to fear.” The one named Sandra explained to her young leader.

“So I am to trust someone who likens me to a vicious monster?” Bruce asked Jonathan, who merely shrugged and replied with,

“He often calls me The March Hare, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Before Bruce could respond, Carrie said,

“I think you should work with Tetch.” Bruce could not keep the incredulous look off of his face at that.

“You were practically snarling about me working with Scarecrow but you’re eager for me to work with the Mad Hatter? What brought this on?”

“Simple, he might just be able to help you with that power you’ve been having trouble with but could prove really helpful for the you-know-what,” Carrie explained, causing Jonathan to glance between her and Bruce, as well as share a glance with Jervis. He hated to admit it, but he had actually missed the loony chatterbox and hoped he could convince Bruce into letting him stay.

“You are suggesting I learn a highly dangerous ability from Jervis Tetch, of all people?”

“The best time for the ritual is not even two weeks away, and there is still so much we need to gather and do, if you are willing to take a chance with Scarecrow, why not the Hatter?” Carrie argued, and Jonathan felt he had to intervene.

“Seeing as how Carrie is talking of having Jervis help you in some capacity, I can only imagine that this ability you are having trouble mastering, is some form of mind control, something Jervis actually _could_ help you learn if you would be willing, right Jervis?” Jonathan gave Jervis a very meaningful look as they looked at each other.

“Most definitely, if he has even a trace of the ability, I will gladly help him learn how to use it.”

“You think you can help me when seven world-renowned assassins couldn’t?”

“If I may, Master, it is indeed quite possible that Tetch may be able to help you ensnare the senses of weaker people. The reason we have been unable to help you is some kind of block that we are unable to help you with, but Mr. Tetch might be able to pick up on the problem and help you overcome it.” The one named Lukas spoke up; Jonathan felt that he was something of an opportunist and, in the interest of his ‘Master’ becoming as strong as possible, took every opportunity that came to him.

“Is anyone actually on my side for just how dangerous this is becoming? Scarecrow I was willing to give a chance because, even with his numbers and fear toxin, I felt safe enough in our abilities to even things out, but Tetch? What is to stop him from just hypnotizing everyone into doing whatever he wants, as he has done in the past?” Bruce asked, looking like he thought this was as bad an idea as teaming up with either of the Valeska’s.

“Master, we do not wish for either you or your younglings to be in danger, ever if possible, but even you cannot deny that one of the most important components to the ritual is in a stronghold where, if you stay true to your desire to avoid killing, that ability would be most helpful. And, if we are to do the ritual this month, we cannot allow for any delays.” Erik spoke up from behind Tetch, but Bruce still looked unconvinced.

“Bruce, use the ability that let you know I meant you no harm and see that Jervis just wants to earn his keep here, with me.”

“First of all, it doesn’t work that way, secondly, why does he need to earn his keep that way? You said it yourself, he’s your ally, and I can tell you missed him, so just accept him back and be done with it; your followers wouldn’t dare question you on it.”

“It’s not his followers he’s concerned about, he doesn’t want his partnership with you to be so quickly dissolved; he wants you to see Jervis as being useful to _you_ so that instead of it just being a simple partnership, you would accept a triad. I believe the expression in this situation would be, he wants his cake, and eat it as well, though it has always struck me as a strange expression.” Tatsu summed up the problem quite well, but Jonathan wanted his own answers first.

“What did you mean by your empathy not working that way? Then why trust me?”

“Because you were the only person in a twenty-foot radius of me for over eight hours! Even with Jason, Tommy, and your followers being around you for short bursts of time, _you_ were the loudest and therefore I could focus on you! Now, I am surrounded by seven assassins, a gargoyle with an obvious dislike for you, your twenty followers and my boys who are concerned about what all of this means, and a man who convinced over a quarter of Gothamites to stand on their rooftops to jump off using just his voice! To find out if Tetch is telling the truth, I have to do the one thing Jim Gordon always warned me against regarding Tetch; I will have to stand right in front of him and look him straight in the eye, preferably with a hand on his pulse.”

“Why his pulse?”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this Cheshire Cat could lie to the Supreme Court and get off scot-free, but he can’t fool my vampire senses, I can hear when people lie to me if I can have physical contact. But the truth of the matter is I need eye contact to use my ‘empathy’ as we’re calling it, the problem is Tetch needs the same thing to ensnare a person.”

“I would think Erik’s hand on his throat would be enough incentive not to try such a thing.”

“No good Crane, for the Master to get a true reading on Tetch’s intentions, not only would Erik have to release Tetch, he would have to step away from him, leaving the Master highly vulnerable,” Adrian explained, and right now he wished Jervis’ abilities weren’t quite so well known, but first and foremost, Jervis was a showman, hence why he and Jerome actually got along so well.

“Jervis, as this is eating up a lot of time and my people will be ready to go soon, I want you to give your word to the vicious vampire that can easily break a bone that you will not attempt to hypnotize him while he looks into your eyes.” Jervis nodded quickly at both the vampire warning and the physical threats, which prompted Erik to release him and Bruce to step forward and grab his wrist and placed the other hand on Jervis’ neck.

“Now, promise me that you will not put my team and me in danger, direct or otherwise, deliberate or not, and, you will help me as best you can to learn how to use my ability of mind control.” Jervis watched in fascination as Bruce’s dark eyes lightened and shone a cruel yellow, unknowingly looking into the same eyes that entranced Jonathan the night before.

“I give you my word, for whatever it means to you, that I will not harm you or yours, and I will help you gain control over your ability.” Bruce stared at him for a good long minute, and Jervis stared into the unnerving eyes of the baby Jabberwocky.

“Alright, he can stay, he better go inside as the food will be ready in a moment, and I can tell it’s been a few days since he ate anything resembling a meal. Crane, I will say this here and now; if he comes with us on the hopeful raid, _you_ will be the one responsible for him, clear?”

“Crystal baby, come on Jervis, let’s go grab some food so we can keep up tonight. Oh, and brace yourself; those rumors concerning the human crocodile? They’re true, and you are about to meet him; he goes by Viper at night, by day known as Jason.” As Jonathan led Jervis inside, Bruce called back,

“Stop calling me baby!”

“Sure thing, baby.” Jonathan led Jervis inside and, at the sight of their leader with another new male, this one he had an actual history with, Jackie and Lucy, the two best cooks aside from Jonathan himself, grabbed another bowl and spooned out the concoction of rice cooked in some beef bouillon, with re-hydrated meat, mushrooms, and some re-hydrated vegetables.

“Where did you get the ingredients for this? I haven’t seen vegetables of any kind in over two months, let alone meat outside of Barbara’s territory.” Jervis had to stop his mouth from watering at the sight of such a meal. Jonathan pointed to two boys well, one boy and what had to be the ‘human crocodile’ he had heard about, who were eating their portion of the meal and talking to some of Scarecrow’s men.

“You can thank the Jabberwocky; he and his group have apparently had good luck in finding provisions, which reminds me that I will need to send people with Jason in the morning so they can get the rest of their provisions from wherever it is they’ve been resting their heads. I’ll tell them to wait until sunup just to make sure no thugs get any bright ideas; Jason from what I’ve gathered is quite powerful, but the last thing I need in such a new partnership is to have a ticked off vampire on my ass because some thug managed to knock a few scales off.”

“So, my dear Mr. Crane, how did you come to call the Jabberwocky, Jubjub bird, and a pair of Bandersnatch’s allies?” Jervis asked as he all but stuffed his face with the best thing he’d eaten in months.

“You heard about my group’s raid on the Green Zone almost a week ago?” Jervis only nodded as he continued to eat, not even minding it when he bit into a somewhat large piece of ginger (actual, if not formerly dried, ginger!). “Well, we had a couple day’s rest until seemingly a ‘phantom’, started breaking into our storeroom and taking back what we had acquired from Gotham’s sheep. We finally caught him last night, only to find out this phantom was a vampire, and the protector of a gargoyle, a human crocodile, and a little boy with nerve manipulation.”

“Quite a quartet of monsters, my dear March Hare.”

“Indeed, Mr. Tetch, but these monsters will help make sure I don’t lose any more of my people to thugs who, though dumber than us, are sadly stronger than us physically.” Jervis nodded; he and Jonathan were mental giants, between Jonathan’s pure intellect and Jervis’ hypnosis, but when it came to the physical side of things, they were sadly lacking. Though it lent some credence to the idea of Jonathan (and, by extension, him) working with the Wayne heir; from what he had heard, both on the street and from Jerome himself, the boy was no mental slouch, but the sheer strength he had felt when the vampire had asked for his aid complemented their mental acuity quite well.

“You should probably think of attending some of these lessons the League of Shadows are going to be giving us as, though your hypnotic skills are something to terrify the sheep of Gotham, in a fight, all someone has to do is disable your voice in some way and you are defenseless.” Jervis grimaced at the idea of physically fighting but admitted Jonathan had a point; in Arkham, they had done their best to gag him so he was powerless, and the despicable Captain Gordon had actually slit his throat once, something that had left him too weak to talk, let alone rhyme and control others.

“Are you going to attend any, my dear little rabbit?”

“Of course; I may be good with my scythe, but I am hardly going to turn down the chance to become stronger; I was almost bested by a girl with a whip of all things, that will _not_ be happening again.” Jonathan finished his food with a slurp as he drank the bit of broth that hadn’t been absorbed by the rice or mushrooms. Jervis rolled his eyes at his little rabbit’s lack of table manners and watched as he stood to give orders.

“Alright, now that we’ve eaten, Beta team, get some sleep, tonight, Alpha will be split up into two groups; the larger group will stay here, keep an eye on things, and start training with a group of assassins called the League of Shadows. Bruce Wayne, their leader has already forbidden them from teaching you better methods of killing, but they will teach you how to better engage your opponents so what happened to Mary the other night won’t be as likely to happen again.” He glanced over at Henry, Mary’s younger brother as he looked pained at his sister’s mention.

“I have only one piece of advice; I don’t know much about any of these people, but being assassins as part of a global network of such that, the only people who know about it are either terrified or dead, don’t piss them off. Do your best to keep up with their demands, don’t be lazy, and don’t be smart asses around them; they can move faster than the eye can see and they can put you in a lot of pain that we won’t be able to ease without loss of valuable medicine. Now, the second, smaller part of Alpha will be coming with me, Jervis, Bruce and his trio of nightmares on a supply run into the Green Zone; Bruce believes he knows of an area that hasn’t been touched too much by scavengers. So, Joey, Frankie, and…Ellie, you three will come with us as you are the best at jumping rooftops and I know you three are quite good at picking locks. The rest of Alpha will go wait in the storeroom for the League to start training you so you can still keep an eye on our newly acquired supplies. Go.” Everyone went to either bed or the storeroom, except for the three girls that Jonathan had picked for the job. They were tough, loyal, and, as previously stated, good at picking any locks they came across, so they were perfect for the job. Tommy, Jason, and the trio of deadly ladies all started walking out the door, with Jervis and Jonathan close behind.

“I noticed you kept using the Wayne heir’s first name, as opposed to his surname.”

“Psychology; if I called him Wayne, the others would only remember him as the little rich boy who seemed too weak to do anything to the casual observer. Calling him Bruce, however, as everyone goes by their first name here, lets them think of him as one of us in the idea that he’s trying to survive as well. It also calls to the idea that he’s his own person, and they won’t forget that for two and a half nights, he was able to slip in here undetected, with a fucking gargoyle and no one noticed. If they forget that, they might forget other important things, and it very well might get them killed.” As they stepped outside, they caught the tail end of Bruce feeding on Adrian who, if Jonathan was being honest, looked quite… _euphoric_ as his master cleaned up the arm he had been feeding on. Jonathan wondered if that came from the almost manic devotion the League supposedly had for their leader or something to do with the Vampire Bite itself as Jonathan had read in some sources that, to stop the victim from screaming out in fear or pain, the Bite actually produced hormones that would induce euphoria or even sexual arousal, but he couldn’t see if Adrian was aroused or not.

“Sorry to interrupt your dinner, or breakfast might be more appropriate, but my team is ready, are you?” Jonathan asked as the assassins moved off into two groups themselves, with Adrian, Sandra, and Erik being on one side, and Michael, Jeremy, Tatsu, and Lukas joining Bruce.

“All set, let’s go.”


	2. Bats, Crows, and Hatters find a Wind Rider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce is so used to being in control, he doesn't realize that might annoy some others. Good thing Scarecrow is there to remind him that partnerships are a two-way street. And it's an even better thing that Jervis is good at talking so they don't kill each other!

Bruce sighed (not that he needed to but getting did of certain habits was quite tricky) as he, the kids, and the League members waited for Crane, Tetch, and Crane's people to catch up on the roof that was one beyond the apartment's he was hopeful for supplies of any kind.

  
“I believe that one of the things we should focus on teaching this group is working on their speed and agility; they are as much keyed to survival as stealth,” Jeremy suggested as the younger and less experienced group arrived, with Frankie and Ellie being two of the better equipped for handling the strain.

  
“Some cardio would go a long way for this group as well.” Carrie snarked as Crane and Tetch tried to catch their breaths; more than once she had had to double back and save Tetch as more than once he had almost fallen off the building instead of making the next ledge.

  
  
“Well excuse us for not being acrobats who regularly trapeze across rooftops.” Joey snapped at the gargoyle, who flared her wings at the comment. Bruce was quick to move between the two females and growled at Carrie to make her back down.

  
“Viper, are you ready with the grappling hook?” Bruce asked the reptilian meta-human as he appeared to be fiddling with something that looked like a homemade harpoon gun.

  
“Locked and loaded Boss Bat; how far up should I aim?”

  
“High enough that on the way down, we'll have a good descent, but not so high that our arms get worn out on the way up. Demona will carry Shriek up after you blow the window out and make sure the line took hold properly, then we'll make our ascent.” As Bruce spoke, Jonathan began to wonder if he had dropped into some kind of spy movie or Mission Impossible episode.

  
“Aw, Bats, I can make the climb better than Scarecrow or the Mad Hatter!” Shriek complained even as Demona picked him up.

  
“Whether you can or can't isn't the issue, Shriek, the issue is I need someone up there to make sure the line doesn't come apart at the seams. Demona will be making sure no one is about to fall from the line due to fatigue, and Viper and the rest of us are all too heavy for her to carry that high up. Viper, ready?”

  
“Can I do the line?”

  
“You'll do it anyway so go ahead.” Jason smiled, showing a mouth full of sharp teeth before hoisting the launcher on his shoulder, took aim, and said,

  
“Say hello to my little friend!” Jason then launched the grappling hook into the air and they all watched as the hook broke a window about halfway up the building and the line seemed to go taut.

  
“Alright, Demona, take off.” Demona started flapping her wings and once she got enough altitude, she and Shriek took off for the newly opened window, leaving the others to await her signal to follow.

  
“Uh, baby?” Jonathan asked.

  
“Yes, honey?” Jason, Jeremy, and Ellie laughed as Bruce responded to Jonathan's endearment with another endearment. Even Jervis and Tatsu had trouble fighting their smiles, though Jonathan appeared unaffected.  
  


“Mind telling me why we are doing all this instead of going in the front door?” Bruce grabbed Jonathan's shoulder and brought him to the ledge that faced the street of the building they were standing on before pointing down. Standing near the door of the apartment's they were raiding was a gang where the members all appeared to be linebackers.

  
“Say hello to reason number one; the Devil gang, the spiritual successor to the Hell Fire Club, so named due to their sadistic tendencies, I won't tell you what they did to the last person they caught alone.”

  
“Why doesn't Gordon do something about them then?”  
  


“He'd love to if he could find them and he had the manpower to handle them. He's done his best to keep them away from the GCPD where the refugees are and for him, right now, that's enough.”  
  


“We could take them,” Joey responded as she looked at the idiots. She and Mary had been friends when she was killed, and Joey had been itching for a fight since they found her body.  
  


“Ever hear the expression fight smarter, not harder? That's what we are doing; we could fight them, but the sounds of such a fight might bring others here and then we would probably have to fight them as well, which would put us in danger and make us tired. This way, if we are lucky, they will never even know we were here.” Scarecrow had to admit, that made a lot of sense.  
  


“Dark Knight, Demona just sent the signal; the line is secured and ready for our ascension,” Michael informed Bruce, who nodded, signaling Tatsu to begin.  
  


“You said 'reason one', meaning there was more than one reason that we're doing it this way, what was the other?” Scarecrow inquired as Viper followed Tatsu, who was then followed by Ellie.

  
“The second reason has to do more with practicality.”

  
” _This_ is practical? Scaling a building by way of a homemade grappling hook?” Jervis couldn't help adding his own thoughts on the matter.

  
“This way, only our arms will be tired, as opposed to our legs burning after climbing over forty flights of stairs and still having to break and enter the desired floors. This way, we will be almost two-thirds of the way up and our legs will be fine to carry us the rest of the way.” Bruce explained as everyone else, save Michael had started climbing. Realizing the only other option was to stay behind, Jervis grabbed the line and started climbing, hoping his hat wouldn't fall off, Michael followed to lend a hand if it was needed, then Jonathan and Bruce brought up the rear. True to her orders, Demona flew overhead to make sure no one was about to fall off the line, but everyone, including Jervis, managed to make it to the window, with Shriek helping make sure no one fell out due to jello legs.

  
“That was fun, what do we do for an encore? Glide out on some kind of cape/glider combo contraption?” Scarecrow grouched as he and Jervis tried to get feeling back into their arms.

  
“Believe me, getting down will be much easier than it was getting up, though I will take this moment to remind you, you wanted to come,” Bruce explained as he re-checked the line, hoping no one would try to steal it while they were up here; they had a spare but the more use they could get out of this one, the better.

  
“Alright, my group will proceed upstairs, your team can follow us once you've caught your breath.”

  
“I understand you are probably used to everyone following your orders, but you and I are partners, equals, so I'd appreciate you not ordering us around.” Scarecrow was actually fairly annoyed at how Bruce had been acting.

  
“What is that supposed to mean? I am giving you time to recuperate while we get the doors open and your group can do the easy part.”

  
“Who says we _need_ the easy part?" Scarecrow stood in front of Bruce, whose eyes were starting to glow, something Jervis highly doubted was going to end well, especially as Joey, Ellie, Frankie, Carrie, Jason, and Tommy appeared to be gearing up for a fight with their respective leaders. Jervis quickly jumped between the two nightmares.

  
“Boys! Boys! No fighting! Especially so soon into our new partnership. Jonathan, you just felt like Bruce was being bossy, yes?”  
  


“Of course he was, you heard him!” Bruce tried to take a step forward, but Jervis turned to him.  
  


“Bruce, you weren't trying to be bossy, were you?”  
  


“Of course not! I was just trying to be considerate considering what we all just did! We scaled a building on a forty-five-degree angle rope! _After_ we had been jumping rooftops from the Dark Zone! I figured they would want a chance to catch their breath before continuing on.”  
  
“Considerate?! We barely finished jumping one roof when you were two roofs ahead of us!”  
  


“Before anyone says anything that annoys either party, that would cause ripping and tearing on one side, fear gas being sprayed on the other, and myself in the middle of it, kindly take one step away from each other.” Scarecrow seemed to realize Jervis would be hit by his toxin, and though that would be interesting to see, he did as Jervis asked and backed up, Bruce doing the same.  
  


“Good, now, Jon, I believe that the baby Jabberwocky is used to a more fast pace than we were able to keep up with; while it's not our fault we couldn't keep up, that doesn't make it his fault either. I believe it was in consideration to the fact we had to move so quickly, that he was offering to clear the path for us while we caught our breaths.” Scarecrow went to speak, but Jervis held his hand up.  
  


“Bruce, I believe you when you say you were only thinking of us when you made the offer, but I'm afraid the way you spoke made it seem like you were ordering us humans to stay here while you, the meta-humans, and your assassins cleared the way for us, implying we couldn't keep up. You must remember, Jonathan is his own leader, and perhaps you should have asked what he wanted to do. Maybe he wanted the two groups to stay together in case anything happened.” Bruce looked like he honestly hadn't thought of it that way before turning to the Scarecrow.

  
“Is that how I came across, as ordering you and your group around?”

  
“Pretty much, baby.”

  
“OK, that was not what I was doing; Jervis was right in that my group and I are used to moving at a fast pace. Viper moves very quickly, especially when he doesn't have to make any sharp turns, Demona flies most of the time, and, despite his small size, Shriek is a very good runner, I just forget sometimes that he moves faster than a lot of adults I know.”

  
“You have a mother who uses you for target practice with a frying pan and you'd learn to run fast too, especially when she has a boyfriend who threatens to whip you with his belt when he catches you.” Shriek piped up from behind Bruce and Viper.  
  


“And Jon, remember that Bruce is a leader like you, though his group consists of meta-humans much younger than him, or assassins who were conditioned to view him as their leader by their old leader, who did not accept being questioned. This doesn't make him arrogant, as I do believe he accepts others’ opinions, just not used to thinking of normal people's limits and thinking about how his words can be construed as something other than what he meant.”

“OK, but next time, ask us what we want to do, remember why you should never assume anything.”  
  


“Because it makes an ass of you and me?” Tommy again piped up after coming out from behind the others, now that the tension seemed to ease up.

  
“Got it in one, shrimp,” Frankie responded as she and the girls calmed as well, though she was going to recommend Joey be allowed in some kind of fight; she had been a little too geared up to fight Bruce's monsters.  
  


“Hey! I'm not a shrimp! I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet!”  
  


“OK, Scarecrow, do you and your group want some time to catch your breaths while my group and I get the doors open, or do you want us to wait for you?" Bruce asked as he put a hand on Tommy's shoulder.  
  


“May as well get moving, baby, after our little... dispute, I'm all set to keep moving.” Bruce nodded at the words, and his group started moving again, with Scarecrow right behind them. As they came to the door marking the stairwell, Tatsu was able to wedge her previously unseen sword in the jam and get it open.  
  


“Social interaction isn't my strong suit, so if I do something wrong or something that annoys you, you should tell me. I could never interact with others very well, even before my parents’ death; they always pushed me towards this jerk named Thomas Elliot who naturally had a way of being both charming and condescending as fuck.”  
  


“What happened?” Bruce looked a little bashful as he replied,  
  


“I slugged him.” Jonathan and Jervis both laughed at that; they had heard rumours that the Wayne heir had developed quite the temper in his teen years were pleased to see this rumour to be true; doormats and sheep were absolutely no fun to play with. They suddenly stopped moving, causing the three young men to look ahead.  
  


“What's wrong?” Bruce asked as they watched Tatsu try to pry open another door, though she seemed to be having more trouble.  
  


“Nothing serious master; we've simply reached as high as we can through this stairwell and are trying to get the door open so we may continue. If I might suggest, master, this might be a job for Jeremy.” Michael explained and Bruce had to agree; Jeremy would be able to get the door open much faster.  
  


“Okay, we are high up enough that we shouldn't draw attention, but keep the explosion to a minimum as I just want the door open, not blown apart,” Bruce told Jeremy, who grinned before setting to work.

  
“Uh, pardon the question, little Jabberwock, but did you just say ' _explosion_ '?” Jervis asked as Tommy went to help Jeremy.

  
“The League is made up of people who are jacks of all trades, but unlike the expression, they each do have their own specialties. Lukas' talent is in chemistry, Erik is good at espionage as you experienced, Michael is good with history and mathematics, Tatsu is good with languages and swords, I'm convinced Sandra's speciality is killing people with how proficient she is with deadly weapons, Adrian is good with physics as well as being good with his hands, and Jeremy has a proclivity for pyrotechnics and sadly Tommy has quite the talent in it as well.”  
  


“Pyro- what?” Frankie asked.  
  


“He's good at making things go 'boom' and Tommy is a pyromaniac.” Jason simplified with a smile.

  
“Am not!” Tommy protested.  
  


“Then why is it that when it's time for lessons, you look forward to Jerry's the most?” Carrie asked her cousin as she watched Jerry finish setting the charge for the explosive. It was small, about the size of a cherry bomb, but had quite the kick.

  
“Is it ready?” Bruce asked.  
  


“All set to go, master, ready Shriek?” Jeremy responded as he and Tommy moved a safe distance back. Jeremy gave Tommy the detonator, who smiled before joyfully exclaiming,  
  


“Fire in the hole!” Everyone covered their ears barely in time as the explosion went off.  
  


“Tommy, I've told you before, give us a warning before detonating explosive devices!” Bruce complained as he tried to ease the slight ringing in his ears.  
  


“I did, what else do you call 'fire in the hole'?” Tommy asked, quite confused as to his scolding.  
  


“You have to wait between your 'warning' and the actual explosion to give people a chance to cover their ears.”  
  


“But you knew it was coming.” Tommy pointed out as they walked down the hallway.  
  


“Yes, we knew the bomb was set, but you are still required to give people more than ten seconds warning before setting off said bomb so they can prepare for the explosion.”  
  


“If you weren't ready then why did you ask Jerry and me if we were ready?” Bruce face-palmed at this, causing the others to chuckle at his frustration.  
  


“Just forget it, we'll discuss this later. Are we almost to the elevator shaft?” This caused some confusion even as Carrie and Jason nodded.

  
“How can we use the elevator when there's no electricity?” Ellie asked as they stood in front of said shaft.  
  


“Oh, we're not using the elevator, just the shaft. Demona?” The Gargoyle wasted no time once she was given the go-ahead, and tore open the doors. They had been told of the young girl's enhanced strength, but apparently, they hadn't been told enough as the only ones not wide-eyed or slack-jawed were Bruce's team.  
  


“Viper, Shriek, you two are up.” Before Viper could continue, however, Jonathan put his hand on Bruce's shoulder.  
  


“You're doing it again.” Bruce was confused for a moment before it clicked.  
  


“Sorry, it's not what you think, you see, Jason is going to jump to those wires that help the car to go up and down, he'll then climb up to the next floor, and use his tail to open the door to upstairs. From there, Tommy will jump to that floor, followed by his cousin, and the two will secure a rope that the rest of us will climb up.”  
  


“But why is Jason automatically picked?” Frankie asked the vampire.  
  


“Look, I wasn't knocking anyone's skills; of the three kids, Jason is the best jumper and he can carry Tommy's weight without any impediment, he's also able to use his tail as leverage to open doors such as these. We practiced in other buildings before coming here and his tail is stronger than Carrie's, and we did this training exercise before our two teams became one.” Bruce really didn't want another argument so soon after the last one  
  


“Not to mention, if Viper loses his grip on the cables and falls, he can use his claws to grab the walls, and simply continue climbing,” Tatsu added respectfully as she knew her leader did not care for arguments.  
  


“While those are good points, my team didn't come to help with the menial labour.” Scarecrow pointed out and Bruce felt a headache coming on; he wished they had left with his pulse and breath.  
  


“I get that you want things divided equally, and you don’t want to be patronized but this is dangerous for several reasons; the only reason I allow Jason to do this is that he's adept at wall-crawling.”  
  


“We actually thought of calling him Spider-Lizard at first since he was so good at it, but we agreed code-names should be short and to the point." Tommy pointed out from his position on Jason's shoulders, causing Jason to mumble,  
  


“Thank God we agreed on that idea; I really didn't want to be known as something as dorky as Spider-Lizard.” The girls laughed at Jason's comment before Scarecrow asked,  
  


“I understand Jason being the best jumper, and you are worried about my team’s safety, but what if Jason jumped with say, Ellie?” Bruce sighed again before asking,  
  


“Jason, offhand, how much difference is there in weight between Ellie and Tommy?” Jason then walked over to Ellie, grabbed her in his arms, and lifted her off the ground.  
  


“Offhand, I'd say there is somewhere between twenty to twenty-five pounds of difference between the two; I'm still certain I can make the jump and the climb, but what I'm worried about is will I be able to manoeuvre my tail around her body to grip the door and pull it open? Tommy is not only light, but he's also small enough to actually wrap his legs around my waist for safety and not impede my tail.” Jason demonstrated this by lightly waving his tail around, with said tail barely touching Tommy's bottom.  
  


“I forgot about that aspect, good thinking, Jason,” Bruce remarked which made Jason preen.  
  


“They have risen good points, my beloved hare, whilst you want your people to do equal work, these young ones simply have trained for this mission.” Jervis pointed out, causing Jonathan to grumble before agreeing. Seeing no further argument, Carrie and Lukas secured the rope to Tommy, before giving them a wide berth. Jason backed up a bit, seemed to take a moment to center himself, and took off running, jumping the last second and grabbing the wires in mid-air. There was a moment where it looked like the momentum would send Tommy crashing into the wall, but the boy simply kicked his legs out behind him, then kicked off the wall.  
  


“Good work, both of you, Tommy? You feeling OK?” Bruce commended both boys before checking on the youngest member of his team.  
  


“A little sore, eager to walk it off Boss Bat,” Tommy responded, prompting Jason to start climbing. From there, it was a quick process of opening the door, Tommy getting the rope down to the others, though there seemed to be a slight hiccup when it was discovered Frankie suffered from vertigo, prompting Tatsu to quickly climb and help her finish the quick climb. They were now standing in the hallway that divided the four rooms.  
  


“Alright, Scarecrow, why don't you pair up my group with yours?” He knew this was Bruce's attempt at sharing control with him and admittedly it was a crumb of an attempt, but knew that Bruce had probably planned well in advance for this mission by quite a few days since he had talked about practicing the jump and everything. So, he thought for a few minutes, figuring out who was the least volatile with whom.

“OK, Demona and Joey obviously shouldn’t be together so, Demona, you’ll go with Frankie, while Joey goes with Tommy, leaving Ellie with Jason and Jervis will work with Bruce and me. You want to assign your assassins now?” Bruce grimaced at the word assassin, but nodded and listed off his people.

“OK, I know for a fact Michael has already mentally assigned himself to me so I’m not going to argue with him; Tatsu, you go with Jason and Ellie, Lukas you work best with Carrie, leaving…”

“Tom and Jerry,” Tommy grumbled under his breath, causing the others to laugh but Bruce looked confused.

“What’s wrong? I thought Jerry was your favourite?”

“He’s referring to the cartoon with the cat and mouse.” Scarecrow pointed out, but Bruce still just looked confused so they agreed to drop it, with Demona and Viper tearing doors off of two of the four rooms, Adrian passed a small jar to Jerry, who poured it over the door lock, and they watched it dissolve into a twisted pile of metal.

“Do you want me to open the door or do you want to do it?” Bruce asked Scarecrow who, though he wanted things to be equal between them, had to admit,

“We have seen both Demona and now Viper’s impressive strength, now let’s see yours.” Bruce shrugged before saying,

“My physical strength is greater than a human, but not on the same level as those two; my talent lies more in my speed. That being said…” Bruce first punched the lock, smashing it, then proceeded to ‘donkey-kick’ the door open. Michael and the other two followed him in, only for Viper to call back,

“Remember, save the fridges for last; I don’t want to have to smell that shit any more than necessary!”

“Alright, but stop swearing in front of your cousin!” Bruce called back, only for Shriek to respond,

“Shit is not even the worst thing I’ve heard to date, Boss Bat!” Bruce did not respond and instead handed a bag to Scarecrow.

“Here, they may not look too big, but they are much larger on the inside and can hold a lot of stuff.”

“Thanks, now, I want to talk about something,” Scarecrow said as Michael and Jervis found the kitchen and proceeded to pull out any canned goods or boxes that had not expired.

“Ask away.” Bruce seemed to be grabbing things that could be re-purposed into more useful things, such as drapes that could be turned into clothes and such, as well as small things that looked very valuable, making him curious.

“Demona said about getting something for something at a later date, what was she talking about?” Bruce paused for a moment, and Michael told Jervis to join the pair so he could hear as well.

“Alright, hear me out before you say anything; Carrie and I have been reading more than a couple mystic texts and… we believe we have found something that would give us a chance for a real supply run instead of just scavenging. A temporary way off the island.” Scarecrow and Hatter looked at each other.

“Now, as I said, hear me out first; it’s called a portal spell and, if done correctly, will open a portal in area A and then another in area B. Now, there are some drawbacks, one being there is a range to how far we can go dependent on the power of the users; if we open the portal in your area of the Dark Zone, I believe we will end up on the far side of Gotham River, which presents its own drawbacks. One being if we stretch the portal to its absolute limit, we would drain our users very quickly, so the solution is to use an exterior source. The portal we’ve decided on will be powered by the full moon, but only when it’s in the correct position, which, according to the lunar cycle, should give me an hour. You can probably guess the other drawback.”

“The army is placed on the other side of Gotham River and would probably shoot you.” Scarecrow pointed out, to which Bruce nodded.

“We could go closer to the river, but that would cost us the safety of your territory where only an idiot would attack you. That got us thinking though, if we can’t go over the river as the mines would blow us to bits (and I’m fairly sure _that_ would actually kill me), and digging under the river would take too much time and effort, and even Carrie can only fly for so long and with so much weight, what if we went _through_ the river?” Jervis was the first to catch on.

“You are going to open the receiving end of the portal _in_ Gotham River!”

“Exactly; I no longer draw breath so I will be able to stay underwater until it’s safe to come up. Once the coast is clear of any patrol, I will climb out of the river, change my clothes as I have no desire to look like a drowned rat, then go into Star City, get food and medicine, get back to the portal, and be back before the moon comes out of position but even if I’m not, I would be able to swim through the river, unpleasant though it may be, avoid the mines, and simply make my way back here.” Scarecrow noticed something, however.

“Why would it take you a full hour to get supplies for us, if this works, then you could just do another run next month.”

“True, but I’m not just getting supplies for us, I’m also getting some for the Green Zone, don’t pull that face, you knew I would for Lucius and Alfred if no one else, and Freeze has offered me some machine parts and even a cooling cell I need whilst Firefly has offered some of her weaker kerosene in exchange for food and medicine. Almost three weeks ago the machine we used to dry out vegetables and meat broke down. Freeze is in the main Industrial area which means his parts are the best and will last the longest, and, though most of us see in the dark, Tommy doesn’t unless he strengthens the nerves in his eyes, the problem is that gives him a headache after a while, which leads to nosebleeds because he doesn’t tell us he’s in pain. Kerosene lamps may not be the best to read by, but it wouldn’t use electricity.” Scarecrow and Jervis both felt they had underestimated the young vampire, thankfully they had done it early on and not later.

“That’s some plan baby, but how do you know Freeze and Firefly won’t just kill you once they get their supplies, especially when they find out about each other?”

“For one, they know I could disable them faster than they could see; I already proved that to both of them. Secondly, they wouldn’t get their supplies until I got my stuff, I’m a man of my word and they acknowledge that, so no reason for either of us to double-cross the other. Finally, that fight over territory thing? That’s all for show so only the most ardent will bother them and only an idiot will come and try take territory from either of them.”

“You know baby, you’d make a wonderful smuggler with these skills you are picking up.”

“Why one of Freeze’s cooling cells though?” Jervis asked, agreeing with his March Hare but curious about the need for such a thing.

“Like the kerosene, a power source to replace electricity; meat and vegetables stay fresh longer when they are kept cold.”

“You really are something else bab-”

“BATS!” They suddenly heard a shout and Bruce was out the door a second later, calling

“TOMMY!”

**_**While Bruce, Jonathan, and Jervis are talking, Tommy, Jerry, and Joey are investigating their own apartment** _ **

“What was with the comment about the fridges? Wouldn’t the food be spoiled?” Joey asked Shriek as they searched the shelves for anything they could find.

“Not necessarily; these fridges are all top of the line, and herm- hermet-, ugh, Jerry?” Shriek could say certain words if they were used around him often enough, but Bats had only used this word once or twice around him, and so was floundering.

“Hermetically sealed little one, try sounding it out,” Jerry suggested as he noticed what looked like a fried electric can opener, and noticed a pile of cereal boxes by the garbage bin.

“Her-met-i-cal-ly sealed, was that right?” Shriek asked, only to receive a nod and they watched as Joey started examining the apartment for anything they could use, with Jerry keeping a special eye out for anything they could hock in Star City for cash as no one would notice it missing.

“Little one, have you noticed anything odd about this apartment since we came in?” It had been agreed to try and train the young ones in being aware of their surroundings, and Shriek absolutely loved it, said it was like playing detective. Shriek realized the question for what it was and sharpened his gaze upon the destroyed can opener before going to the cereal boxes. He picked the one on top up and sniffed it, before commentating,

“That’s odd, I get that certain smells can take time to dissipate, but this smells like until a day or so ago, there were Cheerios in this box, how can that be?”

“Well-”

“Ah!” Jerry and Shriek watched as Joey slowly opened a door, only to suddenly be pushed back by what looked like a small tornado that moved horizontally instead of vertically.

“BATS!” Shriek called out as Jerry ran to help Joey, though thankfully she looked alright, if a little, pardon the pun, winded.

“TOMMY! Are you alright?!” Shriek watched as everyone came piling into their apartment, Demona and Bats came to check on him as he had been the one to call out, whilst Viper and the others went to check on Joey and secure the other room.

“What happened, Shriek?” Scarecrow asked and Shriek replied,

“I’m not really sure, Mr. Scarecrow; Jerry had called my attention to some odd things when Joey opened that door and we saw what looked like a mini-tornado push her away, and then it disappeared.”

“How the hell could that have happened?” Scarecrow thought Shriek might have misinterpreted what he saw or even might have been lying when Bruce said,

“I know what he said sounds odd but believe me when I say Tommy is not in the habit of lying, especially about something so important and definitely not during a mission.”

“Yeah, but a ‘mini tornado’? Come on, baby.”

“Perhaps, Master, you should listen more for sound, than words,” Tatsu suggested, causing everyone to fall silent as Bruce closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating. Jervis went to ask what he was doing when Tatsu shook her head, and Bruce opened his eyes.

“Tatsu is right; there is one more heartbeat here than there should be, and it’s very erratic, meaning its probably scared stiff. And it might just be the source of that ‘mini tornado’.” Scarecrow went to ask what he meant when Carrie whacked him with her tail, and, though Scarecrow wanted to dose her, it would break the partnership in a heartbeat, and no doubt Bruce would leave them up here. The response however did clue him into what Bruce was talking about; another meta-human, this one apparently with some kind of wind-based power. Shriek then said,

“That must be the case of all those cereal boxes, that’s how they’ve been surviving, but what about that fried can-opener?”

“Only one way to find out, little cousin.” Viper then started sniffing the air, rather like a hound dog. He and Bruce went into the room and asked Adrian and Michael to leave before Bruce started speaking.

“You can come out, there’s no reason to be afraid; we know you only attacked Joey because you were frightened. No one is going to hurt you.” Scarecrow and Jervis watched as Viper sniffed at the closet, only to shake his head and go on sniffing. Jervis noticed the open window and pointed out,

“Perhaps he or she is hiding out there?” Bruce shook his head in the negative.

“I can hear your heartbeat little one, I know your in here, and again I say, there is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Found you!” Jason called out as he lifted the bed off the ground and a little boy went scampering out with a scream. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed,

“OK, apparently the only thing to fear is a twelve-year-old human/lizard hybrid who can’t use what is left of his mammalian brain to figure out how terrifying he looks in the dark to someone who has never seen him before and to give me some warning when he’s about to scare the shit out of a little boy!” The little boy in question ran to the only corner in his room that didn’t have Hatters, Scarecrows, human lizards, or vampires near it, very close to the open window. He looked to be around Jason’s age, though perhaps not quite there yet, maybe a few months off, possibly closer to Tommy’s age. His light brown skin suggested Mexican heritage, though the sharp blue eyes looking at them terrified suggested not pure Mexican.

“Uh, sorry about that, little guy, I honestly thought if you actually saw us, then there would be no reason to be afraid, you know? Cause you’re like us, a meta-human.” Viper tried coming closer, only for the boy to bolt again, though in his fear, he actually ran out the window onto the narrow ledge, and barely managed to stop himself from going over before spinning around and clinging to the stone.

“Jason, we really need to work on your people skills, and I can’t believe I just said that. Carrie, go into the master bedroom and open the window, but don’t go on the ledge; your wings are too large, you may just fall off and though you can fly, it might scare the boy more. Just open the window and keep an eye on him and we’ll either corral him to you or bring him back inside but if he falls you’ll be ready.” Carrie went to follow her leader’s orders with Frankie following her just in case the kid freaked out again. Meanwhile, Bruce climbed out onto the ledge.

“You know, as scary as Jason can look to a frightened little boy, I can tell being out here is even worse for you; your heart sounds like it’s about to burst out of your chest.” Bruce tried edging closer to the boy, but he moved away.

“Se veía como un monstruo.” The boy whispered into the stone wall, doing his best not to look down. (He looked like a monster.)

“Sé que así se veía, pero ¿no conoces ese viejo dicho?” The boy looked at him surprised apparently that he spoke Spanish. (I know that’s how he looked, but don’t you know that old saying?)

“¿Qué?” Bruce smiled a gentle smile and replied,

“Nunca juzgues un libro por su portada, tienes que darle una oportunidad al leerlo.” (Never judge a book by its cover, you have to give it a chance by reading it.) The boy looked to be considering this when he spoke again,

“He will not hurt me?”

“No, he’s really very friendly and was simply overenthusiastic to meet you.”

“And the others? They will not hurt me?”

“I promise; we may look frightening, and some of us may like to fight more than is probably healthy, but we are not going to hurt you.” The boy all but threw himself at Bruce, who was a tad startled but before he could do anything, a strong gust of wind came shooting up from below and blew the two of them back into the room, where Jason, Scarecrow, and Jervis managed to catch them.

“Definitely a meta and I’m going to guess Air Manipulation is your ability? Now, what’s your name?” The boy paused for a moment as Jason moved around them, seemed to give some kind of signal to Carrie, and firmly shut the window.

“Juan.” Bruce put him down but looked unconvinced.

“You want to try that again, little friend? Remember me saying I could hear your heartbeat? Well, that also means I can hear when you’re lying.” Bruce did his best to look as nonthreatening as possible since he was obviously still quite scared, but he mumbled,

“Herman.” Tommy snorted at this, causing Bruce to glare at him and the new boy, Herman, to look over at him.

“Thomas Horatio Brown, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a dozen times; we do not laugh at other people’s names.” Herman sighed before saying

“It is alright, Mr Bat, I am long since used to the giggles everyone gives at my name; I hate it but it’s my abuelito’s name, but from what I saw of him, he was not a very nice man, always looking down on my mother.” The others giggled a little at the ‘Mr Bat’ comment.

“What does ‘abuelito’ mean?” Ellie asked as she looked at the little boy with the unfortunate name.

“From what I recall, it means ‘grampy’,” Bruce explained as Tommy came over and started shaking hands, even grabbing the other boy’s before he offered it.

“Hi! I’m Tommy, though my code-name is Shriek, and I have Nerve Manipulation. You met my older cousin, Jason, already, he goes by Viper even though he seems to be more an amalgamation of reptiles and amphibians than a straight-up snake. My eldest cousin Carrie is just outside the door as she doesn’t want to freak you out again because she has Gargoyle Physiology and we renamed her Demona. Sorry, we broke into your house, but we believed that these apartments were all abandoned when the order was given to evacuate the city. If you gave Juan as a fake name does that mean it’s your preferred name or do you have another name you prefer? Is your power really Air Manipulation? What all can you do with it? How have you survived these last three months? Do you want to come live with us in the Dark Zone so Bats can help you harness your power? He’s really great at - hmph!” Scarecrow, Bruce, and Jason all put their hands over Tommy’s mouth.

“Seriously, does the kid have an off switch?” Scarecrow asked Bruce who replied,

“When you find it, let me know.” Bruce then picked Tommy up and, in a rather surprising move, gave Tommy to Jervis to hold. Bruce then turned back to Herman, who looked rather dazed even as his hand kept going up and down without anyone holding it anymore. Bruce gently grabbed it and made it stop going up and down before speaking again.

“Now, despite him being a chatterbox, Tommy did ask one or two good questions, one of which was, if you don’t like the name Herman, _do_ you actually have a preferred name?” Herman snapped out of his daze and replied,

“Uh, yes, actually, I prefer the name, Zach. And, to answer your other question Tommy, no, my power is not just Air Manipulation, it’s just the part of my powers I have had the greatest luck controlling.” Bruce pursed his lips for a moment before asking,

“Zach, if Air Manipulation is just an aspect, or sub-power, of your main power, would I be correct in assuming that you can also call forth rain and snow, possibly fog? Can you control the weather?” Herman, now to be known as Zach, nodded, glad someone else had said it without him having to.

“You can control the weather?! Man, that is so cool! You are so lucky, that is an awesome ab-” Jervis was the one to now put his hand over Tommy’s mouth at the look Bruce was giving him.

“Zach, how did you come to be locked in here?” Bruce watched as Scarecrow led the boy into the living room and, though he gasped at the sight of Carrie, he seemed to be calming down.

“My father’s la perra.” Bruce raised an eyebrow at the snarled word and heard Tommy ask Jerry what ‘la perra’ meant.

“The word is used to cover a range of unsavoury terms for a woman; bitch, slut, whore, tart, hooker -”

“Yes, thank you, Jerry.” Bruce cut in, to which Jerry replied with a smirk,

“No problem, Master.”

“I take it your mother and father are separated then?” Bruce asked, only for Zach to look down,

“My mama has been dead for almost a year, Mr Bat.”

“Call me Bruce, and I’m sorry.”

“I was told she was hit by a drunk driver and hit her head hard on the pavement, she was gone before she knew what hit her. Is that true? Would she truly have felt no pain as she left this world?” Zach looked like this was the most important question in the world and, judging by the difference between ‘mama’ and ‘father’, it probably was.

“It would be dependent on how fast the car was going, but yes, most people who get hit by cars would go very quickly.” Zach nodded, and Bruce hoped he was right about that.

“My mother was barely in the ground for a month when my father brought _her_ into our home and in my mama’s bed and she started changing _everything_ from what we ate to our maid. I even caught her trying on my mama’s jewelry, even though mama said in her will that all her jewelry was to go into her safety deposit box for me to give my wife or daughter when the time was right! I was able to hide her jewelry in the vents, but my father just got her new, gaudy jewelry.

When the order came for evacuation, father was at work and said he would meet us on the bridge. That perra told me to grab all the jewelry, including mamas and the really expensive crap she kept in the safe, even though that airhead could never remember the combination. I told her I could not remember the combo myself and went to pack a few essentials. While my back was turned, she pushed me into my room, locked the door, and then left, saying my father was better off without a ‘beaner’ for a son. I kept trying to get the door open but my father had taken my key as punishment for ‘stealing’ from my ‘future mother’ (I got hit pretty hard when I told him what I thought about _that_ statement). Then I heard rumbling which got louder and louder until I got so scared, a powerful gust of wind came from my hands, blowing the door off its hinges.” Bruce wondered if all meta-humans he met were going to come from abusive or neglectful parents.

“Why didn’t you leave?” Jervis asked the young meta.

“When the bridges blew, the power went out and by the time I got to the door, the whole building went into lockdown. I tried to get the door open with the wind, but the door was too solid, and so I waited for help to come. After the third day, there was still no sign of help, and I was hungry, so I started eating the cereal; that dimwit always made Lucinda, that was our maid as well as my unofficial nanny, get lots of cereal, but she never ate it!” As Zach spoke, Tommy got Jervis’ attention so he could speak again.

“Were you the reason the can opener was fried?”

“Yes; I had been developing small sparks for about a week when I tried to see if I could get it working so I could eat something other than cereal, even if it was cold, and it blew up in my face instead. We used to have a manual can opener, but belfry head threw it out and made my father get an electric one instead. With how badly the can opener blew, I was scared to think what would happen if I blew up the door; blowing it _out_ wouldn’t have been a big problem, but if it blew _in_ , would I be able to get out from under it in time?” Tommy motioned to be put down, then pulled something out from his bag and gave it to Zach who unwrapped it to reveal a rice ball.

“Not the tastiest thing in the world, but they last for quite a while so they make a good snack when you haven’t eaten in a while.” Zach made sure to take little bites as his mother had often warned him about eating too quickly when you haven’t eaten in a while.

“OK, without sounding _bossy_ may I suggest everyone go back to their apartments, finish scavenging what you can find, and when we leave, we’ll drop Zach off at the GCPD headquarters before heading back to the Dark Zone.” This caused everyone to sharply look at Bruce, making him wonder if any of them got whiplash from moving so quickly.

“You sure that’s a good idea, baby?”

“Indeed; with emotions running high at Jimmy Boy’s stronghold, should we drop off a young Meteorokinetic alone, without any protection?” Jervis asked, not believing for a moment that was a good idea.

“Meteor-what? No, you know what doesn’t matter; what does matter is that Zach here is a meta, like us, he should come with us back to the Dark Zone so he can learn to control his powers!” Tommy complained to his leader.

“Tommy, that is not my decision anymore; we live in the Scarecrow’s territory, we can’t just -”

“You really aren’t that good at asking for things, are you baby?” Scarecrow asked, causing Bruce to look back at him.

“Since just yesterday, you gained an additional three mouths to look after, are you that eager for a fourth?”

“When it proves to be useful, I’m sure we can work things out, especially if you give me something.”

“What do you want?”

“Simple, I want to run some tests on your blood, see how it differs from normal blood, what it looks like and how does it act from before you feed to just after you feed and, does it have any effect on normal blood?” Bruce’s group all tensed up at this request, making Scarecrow wonder what he said. Before he could ask, Bruce did some odd hand signs, seemed to mumble something, and then a glow enveloped the room, though the glow only seemed to cling to Jervis and Ellie in a light violet color, while Bruce’s team were in varying shades of purple, with Jerry and Michael being the darkest.

“Deal.” Scarecrow looked surprised as the colors faded.

“What was that?”

“Just a simple magic sensitivity spell; no glow means you are almost magic-null so you would require amulets or some outside force to actually perform magic and from there, the deeper the color, the more sensitivity you have so the stronger you are. Jervis and Ellie were both light in color so they would be fairly limited to enchantments, which may be where Jervis gets his hypnotic abilities, and as you saw, Jerry and Michael were the darkest and, for those not here, it’s honestly a toss-up between Adrian and Erik who’s darker. But I know you won’t be able to use my blood in any kind of blood magic or rituals so I will grant you five vials of my blood, just let me know when you want them. Zach, I’ll explain later but for now, once you are done eating, grab a few things you want to take with you and let Tommy or Jerry know which jewelry is your mother’s and which belonged to the harlot.”

“Harlot? When are you from, the 1930s?” Frankie asked as everyone went back to their own apartments to resume their scavenging.

“Tommy? What is Bruce’s ability?” Zach asked as he finished the rice ball and licked his fingers; after so long on carefully rationed cereal with no milk, it had honestly been delicious.

“Doesn’t his code-name give it away? That reminds me, we will have to think of something for you. But, regardless, Bruce is a vampire!” Zach looked at Tommy for five straight minutes as if waiting for the punch-line that wasn’t coming, and Tommy just kept smiling until Zach asked,

“So, does that mean I’ve been recruited for an ever-growing army of the undead?” Tommy only laughed as he went to help Zach pack up some stuff.

**_**After the scavenging and they have left the building** _ **

Jerry actually seemed to be choking from how tightly Zach had wound his arms around his throat as they had zip-lined down the line they had previously climbed.

“We go down to street level now?” Zach asked as Jerry managed to ever so lightly get the arms off of his trachea. Bruce felt terrible as he replied,

“Not yet, Zach, we have to clear the Green Zone’s barricade by way of the rooftops, but once we clear it, we can climb down to street level.” As Zach whined, Bruce resolved to ask the others to help the newest meta to the team get over his fear of heights.

“I don’t like heights either Zach, but jumping the rooftops isn’t so bad, just think of it like a track meet and the gaps between buildings are hurdle you need to jump; build up enough speed and we’ll clear them easily,” Frankie explained as she helped Zach come off Jerry’s shoulders and passed him to Jason who could handle the pressure on his trachea better. Bruce’s team took off first, though they were more considerate of Scarecrow’s slower speed than before, even though they tried to be quick so Zach could be at ease as it seemed like every time they jumped, the winds were pushing them faster and faster. They had just caught up again and had just cleared the barricade when a scream cut through the night. Jason looked down on a hunch and saw that several thugs seemed to have cornered a young woman in the alley below them, which was unfortunate as this particular alley was a dead end.

“Time to get off little buddy, this is not the time for your first fight,” Jason said as he unwound Zach from his shoulders and set him on the ground.

“What do you mean?” Ellie asked as she held Zach close to her as he was lightly shivering. The shivering intensified as Jason and Carrie both developed grins that could only be described as bloodthirsty.

“We’ve done the work, and now it’s time for some fun.” Carrie glided down and used her momentum to kick the closest thug into a wall as Jason, Bruce, and Tommy all descended.

“Didn’t your mothers ever tell you girls respond better to wine and roses than blood and clubs? Though, judging by the mugs on you lot, your mothers threw you away and kept the storks.” Scarecrow’s girls all laughed at that, with Joey making a note to remember that one.

“What the hell is that?”

“A freak!”

“A monster!

“Excuse me! That happens to be my sister you are insulting! And her name is… Demona.”

“Before we get started with this whole thing, I have to ask, have any of you heard anything about Jeremiah Valeska? Ah, judging by the fact that one heartbeat in particular just started racing, I’m going to say yes.” From there, there was nothing but the sound of flesh hitting flesh and claws ripping into flesh.

“I don’t understand, why are they doing this? Do they know her?” Zach asked as he tried to keep the rice ball down as he watched his hopeful new friends take on dangerous looking thugs.

“I believe it has something to do with Bruce being almost disgustingly noble and the other three having violent tendencies and this is their outlet.” Scarecrow drawled as he watched Bruce take on three of the idiots. He looked down however when he felt pressure on his wrist and saw Zach had gripped his wrist to get his attention.

“Mr Scarecrow, three of the thugs are advancing on Tommy!” Scarecrow glanced over and saw that three were indeed approaching the boy, who did not look the least bit frightened.

“You numb skulls sure you want to tangle with me?”

“What are you gonna do? Throw your diapers at us?”

“I will have you know I have been potty trained for years, though going by your vocabularies, I can’t say the same for you. But no, I may be small, but you’ll find I’m as dangerous as the rest of my team.” Without further ado, Tommy placed the tips of his pointer and middle fingers to his temples and appeared to be concentrating. A minute later, two of the three thugs started backing away and screaming.

“What’s he doing? Those idiots look terrified but he’s not doing anything to them.” Frankie asked and the others were stumped as well until Zach mumbled,

“Nerve manipulation… nerve manip- of course! Tommy is using his ability to manipulate the optic nerves of those idiots into believing that where he stands, there is now a monster or something standing there!” The others appeared rather impressed at this, though grew concerned when the third idiot, apparently trying to prove his bravery, swung a pipe and hit Tommy clear across the face, breaking his concentration and dazing him. Zach was even more worried now; Tommy was a babbler but he had been only friendly to Zach, he couldn’t let his new friend get hurt! But it would take too long to use the fire-escape to get down, they were already advancing on him! Unless…

“I hope this works and I don’t go splat!” Zach said before he jumped off the roof, and aimed downwards with his wind powers to slow his descent until he was close enough to the ground and turned his wind powers to bast the thugs away.

“Leave my chatterbox friend alone!” Zach stood in front of his friend, ready to take the next blow, only for it to be caught by a scythe.

“How about you get a good taste of fear!” Scarecrow then sprayed the trio with his fear toxin as his girls came to help out in the fight until they ran like the cowards they were. Jason approached the woman, hoping to help her calm down.

“It’s OK, they’re gone now, you’re safe.” The woman screamed at the sight of him however and hit him with her purse.

“How dare you strike my brother when he was instrumental in our saving you! My cousin got his face struck by a lead pipe because of you!” Carrie snarled at the woman as Jason hid behind Bruce, Frankie and Ellie coming to make sure he wasn’t hurt. As Carrie’s temper grew, the others noticed her eyes glowing red.

“Freaks! You’re monsters!” The woman screamed as she ran away, but Bruce caught her by the arm before she could and replied,

“Considering the fact these men would have raped you numerous times, tortured you, dismembered you, then probably fucked the pieces, I would put a little more care into just who you call _monsters_.” Bruce then let her go before going over to Tommy who was being tended to by Zach, Jervis, and Scarecrow, who had even taken off his mask.

“Tommy, are you alright?”

“If I say I’m in agony, will it get me out of a lecture?”

“Nope, only delay it.”

“OK then, best to get it over with; apart from a slight headache and slight dizziness, I’m OK.”

“I can attest to that; his pupils reacted normally to my penlight, and despite feeling dizzy he doesn’t feel nauseous but we’ll keep an eye on him just to be safe.” Zach testified as Jervis put a butterfly bandage on a cut to his cheek.

“You know a lot about medicine, Zach?” Scarecrow asked as he looked at a bruise from where Tommy’s head hit the wall, but again, it didn’t appear to be too serious.

“Mama was an ER nurse at Gotham General, so she always made sure I knew lots of first-aid and we had like, a half dozen first aid kits around, which I brought with me.”

“Good boy, now Tommy, what have I told you about trying new techniques in the field?”

“Two things; one, only use it when you’ve practiced, practiced, practiced, and two, never use it on more than one opponent until perfected. I had been practicing for almost two weeks! I wasn’t expecting to have to face three goons at once before I was ready!”

“Then why didn’t you use your training to at least knock one out before trying your new technique? Tommy, remember to think things through, look at the big picture; Scarecrow and… Zephyr won’t always be around to help you.” Zach looked up at what he guessed was his new code-name.

“Zephyr, baby?”

“Just a suggestion but since he obviously has the best grip on his wind capabilities, the name of the Greek God of the west wind seemed appropriate, particularly as Zephyr was the gentlest of the four winds, especially compared to Boreas, the north wind, The only other name that I could think of was Wind Rider which, though both appropriate and fitting by what we just saw, was perhaps a trifle long. But in the end, it is Zach’s choice what he wants to be called, and if he doesn’t like Zephyr, we’ll find something else.” Scarecrow looked at him for a moment before asking,

“Did you swallow a dictionary or something?” Bruce ignored him as the last thug ran past, this had been the one whose heart had raced when Jeremiah’s name was mentioned, and Bruce knew he had to follow.

“We’ll talk more later; Lukas and Jerry, make sure no more idiots get near Scarecrow’s group, the rest of us are going after that idiot. Demona, take to the sky and don’t lose him if you think you can guess his route, lay an appropriate trap.” Demona nodded once before she took off.

“Miss seeing more of you in action? I don’t think so.” Scarecrow shot back.

“OK then, anyone coming get back on the roof; we’ll have a much easier time of following Demona this way.” Michael cast a quick spell that had them all up on the roof.

“We’re in luck, Boss, Demona just signaled that dumb-ass is heading in the direction of our old hide-out, near Miss Kean’s territory.”

“Maybe he’s hoping the news of Gotham’s Night Monster and Scarecrow teaming up will be enough for a few hours of protection?” Joey suggested, which sounded plausible so Bruce replied,

“If we cut across Seventh avenue, we can head him off just before he gets to Barbara, she won’t hide him from me but I hate owing her favors.” They took off, being as fast as possible as Scarecrow had seen Bruce’s strength, and his leadership skills, now he wanted to see interrogation. It was almost twenty minutes later and he was thankful to Zach; in a bid to be helpful, he had pushed the winds at their backs to make them go faster than normal, meaning they had arrived before their quarry, only for it to start to rain.

“Sorry Mr Bat, when I’m nervous, I cause rainfall.”

“That’s OK, Demona managed to signal she was getting ready to land anyways so I imagine lunkhead is still heading in this direction,” Bruce said before he pulled another rope from his bag (seriously, who was this guy? Ropes-R-Us?), this one much thinner than the previous two and, with the help of the other three meta’s, quickly set up what looked like a snare line and attached it to a metal bar before lowering it to the streets.

“Now, we wait, Demona, any idea how far off he was when you landed?”

“He should be here any second, Bats. There he is!” Bruce did a mental countdown as he saw the idiot run headfirst into their trap. In retrospect, the rain was probably helping more than it was hurting since, in addition to his pulsing adrenaline, the moron probably couldn’t even see the line, let alone the trap. ‘5… 4… 3… 2… 1’

“AHHH!” The others watched as the lunkhead was caught by his ankle and whipped into the air. As he reached their level, it seemed like any lightness Bruce had possessed (if any) to this moment evaporated, and in its place something dark, threatening was taking its place. Bruce was glaring, eyes glowing red instead of that enchanting yellow seen earlier, his face set in a snarl, and his incisors appeared to have grown almost an inch; this was the face of an angry vampire and a good look for scaring the shit out of weak-minded fools. Bruce grabbed the greasy locks of their prey that had fallen into the trap with eyes wide open and spoke.

“Where is Jeremiah Valeska?!” Bruce’s voice seemed to have deepened at letting his own inner monster out and about. There was actually something quite threatening about this voice, and it made a certain, almost pleasant, tingle run down Scarecrow’s back.

“I d-don’t know! I haven’t seen or heard a thing about the guy in months! I swear to God!” Bruce snarled as he heard the lie in the man’s heartbeat, apparently, he hadn’t believed him when he mentioned he could hear heartbeats.

“Swear to me!” Bruce let go and they watched as the idiot fell back to earth at a breakneck pace, only to be caught at the last minute and hauled back up. Scarecrow almost swooned at the screams Bruce elicited; if Jervis was his partner in being unlike Gotham’s sheep and actually having a personality, then Bruce was obviously meant to be his partner in fear. He was actually beginning to see the appeal Jerome and Jeremiah had both seen in Bruce, but it was obvious Bruce was never meant to be with either of them as he took things much too seriously. No, he was much better suited as an anchor to keep Jervis at least partially in this world so he didn’t go floating away into Wonderland, and Scarecrow’s equal in fear and the dark; Bruce was simply too good at it to believe otherwise.

“I don’t know! I swear I don’t! I, I thought I heard some rumors that some of his followers had dedicated a church to him somewhere near the Narrows!”

“Lee Thompkins took back her control of the Narrows after she iced Sofia Falcone! Everyone knows that, or are you really _that_ stupid?” Demona asked, her eyes again glowing red, living up to her name.

“I said _near_ the Narrows, not _in_ it!” Scarecrow wondered how much of a threat Bruce posed to this idiot as he snapped at Demona, someone who had proved to be a vicious fighter barely a half-hour ago. Viper did not appreciate it either as he started growling, sounding like an irritated crocodile, the rain almost bouncing off his scales from what he guessed were actual vibrations even as some drops followed the pathway of his scales, coming to a rest at his open mouth, allowing the scumbag to see his rows of sharp teeth, and combined with the rain, looked like he was drooling.

“There were also rumors he might have been seen near Gotham Park, especially with all the creepy stories coming out of that area lately. They know that cops would only go there in force so -”

“DO WE LOOK LIKE COPS?!” Bruce roared and, in his fear, Zach seemingly summoned lightning and thunder to complement Bruce’s ferocity.

“NO! AHH!” Bruce again let the idiot drop and this time appeared like he was going to go splat, only to be saved at the last moment, leaving him to dangle for a moment before finally dropping him. Bruce took a few deep breaths, hoping to calm down as he knew right now, he was scaring Zach. Jervis came over and decided to take a risky chance with three devoted meta-humans, and four _highly_ devoted assassins surrounding him. He gently grabbed Bruce, forced him to face him, then placed one of the vampire’s hands on his own heart, and the other hand, on Jervis’. He then placed one of his own hands on Bruce’s pulse, which was beating very erratically, and with the other hand he opened his watch.

“Listen to the ticking of my watch, let your heartbeat synchronize with it, let it drop into a nice, steady rhythm, feel yourself becoming weightless. Look deep into my eyes, not above them, not around them, but deep into their center, drown out all noise but the pitter-patter of the rain and the sound of my voice and our combined heartbeats. You are now completely relaxed, weightless, the only connection you have to this Earth is our hearts beating as one. Now, sleep.” Bruce’s features smoothed out, his fangs shrunk back to normal size and his eyes went from red to yellow for but a moment, before returning to their dark green color. Jason came over and waved his hand in front of his face, only to get no reaction.

“You’re not going to make him cluck like a chicken, are you?” Carrie asked, and Jervis could see her claws at the ready if she thought he would cause any mischief.

“Not at all my dear, he was so angry I feared he would hurt himself, this is just to make him relax, and, in case you haven’t noticed, the rain has lightened up as well.” Carrie looked over at Zach who was being held by Tommy who was talking quietly to him to help him calm down.

“I know he was scary a moment ago but remember; that piece of scum would have really hurt that woman and probably has hurt a lot of people in the past. Once Miss Kean finds out the reason how he found out his info was because he was attacking a woman, she is gonna kill him. He will not raise his voice to us, when it comes to anything he does wrong, he will do his best to keep a calm tone and, if he does raise his voice to us, you can bet it’s because we did something _really_ stupid that endangered either ourselves or someone who is not the enemy.” As Tommy spoke, the lightning and thunder stopped, the rain eased up and actually warmed until it was almost like taking a lovely, relaxing shower.

“But the master is in no danger, right?” Lukas asked as his master indeed looked very relaxed, but the League was well aware of the Mad Hatter’s abilities.

“He’s perfectly safe; Jervis would do this for me occasionally back in Arkham on particularly bad nights.” Scarecrow offered as he came over and stood behind Bruce as he felt certain Bruce was the kind to stumble when coming back to himself. Jervis counted down and snapped Bruce out of the trance, causing him to stumble, but being between two dangerous men ironically kept Bruce from falling He looked at both men as they held him up, then glanced over at Zach who Tommy was still whispering to even as he brought the young wind rider over to them. Bruce felt so guilty for the fact he had been the one to scare the boy; he tried to control his temper most of the time but the simple fact was intimidation was a good way to get dirtbags talking.

“Zach, I’m so sorry I sca-” Bruce was cut off as Zach wrapped his arms around Bruce’s middle and rested his head on Bruce’s stomach. This sudden action startled everyone, even the League members, as not even five minutes ago the boy had appeared terrified of their vampire. Bruce then heard Zach mumble,

“As scary as you looked just now, you weren’t as scary as The Bitch or my father.” Bruce looked at Jonathan and Jervis and saw the same understanding dawn in their eyes; it looks like apart from being a group made up of people either abandoned or forgotten, they were a group made up of abused kids. Bruce was the only one who hadn’t been abused, but his… _experiences_ until this point in time hardly lead to a normal, healthy individual. He knew it would be tricky; he had to find Jeremiah and stop him from hurting anyone else, he had to complete the requirements for the ritual, he had to continue to control his hunger, and help these young meta-humans get control of their powers. It wouldn’t be easy but he would manage.

He had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I am not sure if I will actually write smut here but I am hoping to display the fact that Jervis needs Jonathan to be even remotely normal, same with Jonathan, and Bruce wants to be in control as best he can because, of course, the problems of Gotham are his problems.
> 
> Now, we come to the Meta’s:  
> Carrie is heavily influenced by Demona from Disney’s Gargoyles from her appearance to her temper. She was the firstborn in her family and she quickly realized her parents were not ideal and from then on, she always protected Jason and, when he was around, Tommy, from them. When her gene activated, it produced a creature who, according to Goliath, was born to protect something or someone, even to the point of being hated for being different, but it was really a part of their genes, of who they were, to protect. I toyed with the idea of making Bruce a gargoyle but it just wouldn’t cut the mustard as they say. Carrie is also highly distrustful of new people because she was told to go to certain people for help, and she did concerning her parents, but no one ever helped her. Now Bruce is a ‘freak’ like her and a protector, so she feels he is the only person she, her brother, and their cousin, can truly rely on for safety, but in the same sense, she is protective of him because of the fact he’s been betrayed so often and by people he has trusted.
> 
> Then, there’s Jason, being a boy was always to be the best, to be the strongest and all that, and he tried, he always tried, but to his father, it was never enough. Jason only wanted to do well enough to survive, get a good job, maybe not afford trips to Maui every year, but enough so he didn’t have to worry. His abilities are all about survival because that is what reptiles do; they survive, and so he can smell his opponent even if he can’t see them, he can climb ou of problems, he can camouflage to hide, and he is finally strong enough and fast enough. Jason follows Bruce’s lead because in his household if you did as you were told, you didn’t get smacked, so he has a very submissive personality until his family is attacked in any way.
> 
> Tommy, straight up, was not planned, he was not wanted, he has no idea who his father is or if he is even still alive, but his mother did not have money for an abortion so she figured her drugs and alcohol would kill the fetus. Remarkably, however, Tommy survives and he comes out perfectly normal. His mother used any checks that were supposed to go to his welfare on herself and left him to scrounge for himself, and he did. He grew up in the Narrows where there were people who cared just enough to teach him things, which we will learn later. Tommy sees Bruce as the father he always wanted and feels like if he keeps Bruce happy, he will always want him around, hence why he pushes his powers as much as he can; if he’s useful, Bruce is happy.
> 
> Herman/Zach was honestly an afterthought for this chapter when I thought of how useful a weather manipulator would be for Bruce’s team/family. Not much is known about his character at this time, except that the parent he loved is gone, and, like Bruce, he’s been fairly lost ever since, and more than a little angry. He hasn’t been allowed to express his anger over these changes due to threats of violence as well as being sent away from the only home he has ever known. So his anger has been forced to simmer below the surface, like a good storm that just keeps building and building until it’s allowed to break free. The reason he controls air so well as, according to Avatar, the Last Airbender, it’s the element of freedom and that is what he wants most in the world; freedom from his father’s oppression and neglect, freedom from the woman who has taken his mother’s place in his life, even freedom from all the grief he’s been feeling since his mother’s death that no one has tried to help him through in all this time. He doesn’t realize yet Bruce the Bat is Bruce Wayne and therefore knows a few things about grief, pain, and hatred, but Tommy, the first person who hasn’t inspired hatred, fear, or frustration since his mother died, says that Bruce is safety, he is their protector. So, he too will try to find his place in Bruce’s team not only for control of his powers so he can keep Tommy safe, but because Bruce may very well be his best bet for the freedom he craves.
> 
> One last thing; there is some conflicting literature on vampires but some do say while they have no breath, they do, for some reason, have heartbeats


	3. The Bat and The Hat meet The Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy takes liberties, Jonathan is NOT a babysitter, Bruce learns a couple of things about Jervis, and Lee wishes Jim had less of an impact on Bruce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering, yes I am aware Metropolis is actually closer to Gotham than Star City, but it has to do with the plot.

Not much happened when they got back to Jonathan’s territory; between the running, scavenging, fighting, hunting, calming Bruce down, and retrieving the rest of Bruce’s supplies (which included a flock of pigeons he used to communicate with the other territories) there was just over an hour and a half before sunrise, in which even the League members agreed that their run had constituted as training and the young ones were set to readings. Bruce himself practiced judo with Adrian and Jerry while Sandra wrote up some notes for the Beta shift group to go through while she and the others retreated for the day. Tatsu and Michael were leading Jonathan and Jervis through, of all things, yoga to help the pair limber up and not be quite so stiff. Jonathan had complained about something so useless when the deal for protection had been teaching them to fight, and Tatsu had knocked him on his ass one minute later, stating she had been really holding back. 

Michael had informed the pair that the best fighting style for two such ‘willowy’ males was a combination of acrobatics and Chi blocking, better known as the use of pressure points, but to fully utilize such a style, they needed to be more limber. To demonstrate, they had called Julian in before he would be resting for the day and Jonathan’s Sandra would take over his duties, and Tommy would be the attacker; Jonathan and Jervis had initially laughed at the prospect, but five minutes later, their jaws were on the ground. Tommy, despite being under observation for a possible concussion, had moved like a snake and was practically bouncing off the walls with how he moved and they watched the nine-year-old (according to Bruce, who wasn’t too sure himself, apparently the kids were not too forthcoming with that tidbit) hit pressure points that had Julian on the ground and unable to talk.

“How?” Was all Jonathan had been able to get out as Lance and Sandra had taken Julian to his bunk to sleep off the paralysis. Thankfully, Tommy was not yet strong enough to do lasting or serious damage, just paralysis for a few hours, and even then, he was unable to paralyze certain systems, like breathing. Tatsu responded,

“You must understand, Crane, the art of Chi blocking is the art of disrupting the natural flow of energy within the human body; if you can move fast enough and successfully block another person’s Chi, you can become a one-man army. It is said the former master once engaged a thousand men by himself, and defeated every single one with Chi blocking.”

“You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”

“When it comes to Ra’s Al Ghul, best to treat things as fact; the man lived for centuries thanks to his Lazarus Pits, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he did do such a thing, then used the pits to heal himself. Not to mention how many times he told me that only a certain blade could kill him and it had to be wielded by a certain person, ie, me.” Bruce explained as he came inside. Jonathan had already told him that his closet was Bruce’s best bet at hiding from the sun since not even the League was certain what would happen if he was struck by sunlight as he was so young.

“I’m glad you are done your training a tad early, Master, as young Tommy has already informed me he wants the story tonight,” Michael informed his leader who groaned,

“Again? How many times have I told him that story already?”

“He has requested it no less than twice a week since he met you, you often wind up telling it three times a week as either Jason or Carrie prompt you to tell it for him, and we are recently passed the ninety-day mark, so approximately in the ballpark of two-hundred-twenty-eight times, Master,” Tatsu answered, causing three of the four males to stare at her for a moment before Bruce threw up his hands, turned around, and headed for the barracks. Jonathan and Jervis found themselves curious as to a story a young fighter would request over and over so many times and followed him. They arrived as Bruce sat on Tommy’s pallet, where both Tommy and Zach (they would make him his own pallet later) were settling in for a few hours of sleep.

“Ready?”

“Ready! Wait till you hear this Zach; it’s a great story!” Zach merely smiled, giving Bruce the go-ahead to start as dawn would be approaching soon.

“Now, in the beginning, Lord Frith, the sun God, made the world. He made all the stars, too, and the Earth is one of the stars. He made them by scattering his droppings all over the sky and this is why the grass and the trees grow so thick on the world. Frith makes the rivers flow. They follow him as he goes through the sky, and when he leaves the sky they look for him all night until he rises again.

In addition to these plants, and rivers, and stars, Frith made all the animals and birds, but when he first made them they were all the same. The sparrow and the kestrel were friends and they both ate seeds and flies. And the fox and the rabbit were friends and they both ate grass. And there was plenty of grass and plenty of flies because the world was new and Frith shone down bright and warm all day. Now, among these animals was El-ahrairah, prince of rabbits, friend to all others of Frith’s creations, and the keeper of many wives. Now, though the animals themselves were all the same, there was something that set El-ahrairah and his people apart; their numbers. You see, the prince of rabbits had too many wives to count, which lead to so many children even Frith couldn’t count them all and, unfortunately, this lead to a shortage of food for the others.

Frith’s other creations begged for him to do something, anything to fix the situation or they, themselves would starve. Frith was powerful but even he could not make food grow quicker, and so he said to El-ahrairah, 'Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them. So mark what I say', But El-ahrairah would not listen and he said to Frith, "My people are the strongest in the world, for they breed faster and eat more than any of the other people. And this shows how much they love Lord Frith, for of all the animals they are the most responsive to his warmth and brightness. You must realize, my lord how important they are and not hinder them in their beautiful lives." Frith saw the trickery for what it was and saw that El-ahrairah cared more about being the best of the creations than his fellow animal, and put a plan in motion.

He called forth all of his creations and said, it is clear to me that something indeed must be done, and soon, or you shall all perish, but I cannot simply erase El-ahrairah and his children as they too have their purpose. It is even more clear that you all cannot be the same so instead, I shall make you all different, with different gifts to help you survive this world. To the butterflies and peacocks, he instilled the colors of the rainbow to make them incredibly beautiful, though the drawback to this was the butterfly would be killed and pinned for being so beautiful, and the peacocks became so vain in their beauty, their brains shrunk and made them rather stupid. The horse and elephant were given great physical might, but the drawbacks to their gifts that when humans came, they would, sometimes harshly and cruelly, use them for personal gain. To the giraffe, he gave a great, long neck to reach the tops of trees none but little birds had ever gotten to before, but to accompany this neck, they received long legs, which would cause such awkward motions they would have to deal with, all their lives.

Then, he singled out a particular group of animals and said, your gifts shall be the ones most would find envious, but your fellow animals will despise you for, as you will be given the tools necessary to make sure our world does not become void of grass and clover again. To you, fox, I give you a most cunning and crafty mind, with a great sense of hearing, for you are rather small, and will have to use your wits and ears to survive among these giants. Hawk, to you and others I have chosen, you shall be given keen eyesight and powerful talons to snatch your meals and devour them. Cat, you, like fox, are one of my smaller creations and so I shall give you and your brethren silence of footsteps and the ability to see in the dark; your prey will find it hard to hide from you when they cannot hear you coming. Weasel, you are even smaller than fox and cat, so to you, I give great speed to pursue your prey and to escape anyone foolish enough to hunt you, for your ferocity is matched only by badger and wolverine. Wolf, you are one of the largest here so your gifts are simple with sharp teeth, and keen smell, but you shall bring your gift to those who deserve it, for the one who gains the loyalty of a wolf, is someone to respect.

To you my children, I have given you some of my greatest gifts, for I have chosen you to carry out the most difficult of deeds; to make sure there are enough grass and clover for your former friends, you shall keep their numbers in check by hunting and eating them. Your first task is to control the numbers of El-ahrairah and to overcome any guilt you may feel at such a task, I have imbued you all with the desire to hunt and kill the children of El-ahrairah. Now, go.

The prince of rabbits now wished he had heeded Frith for there was nothing he could do as his former friends slew his children without mercy, just as he had condemned his friends to death by his own neglect. Then he heard Frith boom over the hilltops, ‘Where is El-ahrairah? The others have come and gotten their gifts, but I cannot seem to find him to give him his own.’ The prince did not believe for a moment that Frith was going to bless him as he had been the cause of Frith changing his creations into something other than what he first envisioned. He though Frith was merely guiding fox, weasel, or one of the other new predators to him, and thus guiding the Black Rabbit of Inle to him. El-ahrairah knew he could do nothing against such ferocity and so he dug a hole in which to hide, but he was only half done when Frith found him, with his bottom sticking out.

'My friend, have you seen El-ahrairah, for I am looking to give him my gift?' 'Uh, no lord,' answered El-ahrairah, without coming out, ‘I have not seen him. He is far away, he could not come.’ So Frith said, ‘Then come out of that hole and I will bless you instead of him,’ El-ahrairah still believed it to be a trick so replied ‘No, I cannot, I am busy. The fox and the weasel are coming. If you want to bless me, you'll have to bless my bottom, for it is sticking out of the hole.’

Frith, instead of being annoyed at such disrespect, felt pride in El-ahrairah because of his resourcefulness, and because he would not give up even when he thought the fox and the weasel were coming. And he said, "Very well, I will bless your bottom as it sticks out of the hole. Bottom, be strength and warning, and speed forever and save the life of your master. Be it so!" And as he spoke, El-ahrairah's tail grew shining white and flashed like a star to blind and trick his pursuers; his back legs grew long and powerful and he thumped the hillside until the very beetles fell off the grass stems.

Blessed with his new powerful legs and long ears to hear his enemies, he came out of the hole and tore across the hill faster than any creature in the world. And Frith called after him, ‘El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so; you are not better, or worse than my other creations, you are simply different. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed." As Bruce finished the story, he noticed the quiet all around him and then noticed that while he had been telling the story to Tommy, and by extension, Zach, Jason, and Carrie, all of Scarecrow’s people had stopped to listen as well.

“That’s from Watership Down, isn’t it?” A pretty blonde asked, to which Bruce nodded before shrugging, causing Tommy to exclaim,

“I don’t care where the story comes from, I love it! It’s like us!” This confused everyone, particularly Bruce’s group as Tommy had never explained before just why The Blessing El-ahrairah was his favourite among all the others Bruce had told them, not that there was much variety.

“What do you mean?” Lance asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“Well, think about it; before the Valeska twins, everyone was roughly the same in Gotham, everyone struggling just to survive. Sure, some had it easier than others, but that’s beside the point. Then came Jerome and later Jeremiah, who caused such damage to the city, that we all had to change, and this was ex- exasp-, ugh, Bats?” Bruce snapped out of his thoughts that had surfaced at the mention of the Valeska twins and answered Tommy,

“Exasperated is what you are trying to say, but I think the word you mean is accelerated.”

“If you say so, anyway, the change was accelerated when Jeremiah blew the bridges, and the different sectors have different gifts; Barbara’s has food and alcohol, Penguin’s territory has ammo, the Green Zone is safe (for the most part), and so on. Then you have us, the children of El-ahrairah.” Jonathan desperately wanted to face-palm; first Jervis calls him the March Hare, now another bunny reference?

“What do you mean, little rabbit?” Jervis asked the young Meta, to which he replied,

“Well, apart from you, Bats and the Scarecrow, this section of the Dark Zone is populated by teenagers and Meta's, two groups that are largely per- perse-, I know this one, I know I know it. Per-se-cu-ted. But, the foxes, weasels, cats, and all the others are the grown-ups who say to teenagers ‘we will listen to you when you’re older’ and what they really mean is ‘we will listen to you when you think like we do’, and they do everything they can to stomp out new, fresh ideas that conflict with their own traditional ones. And we Meta’s fall into the category of something new, something different and I think it’s safe to say that the old world is not going to be nice to us once our numbers start really growing, which they obviously are by the appearance of Zach here, a new Meta. What the adults call ‘growing up’, I call the murder of our independence as well as our true selves and what can’t be altered to fit in their traditional world, in their minds, has to be destroyed.” More than a few mouths were hanging open at such insightful thoughts coming from a person who had barely been alive for a single, full decade.

“You are wise beyond your years, but how does that make us the children of Ellafraha?” Jonathan asked, to which Tommy responded,

“El-ahrairah, trust me, it takes a few tries before you can properly pronounce it, and it applies to us because, to avoid this murder of our ideas as well as our identities, we have to avoid these would-be murderers. To survive out here in No Man’s Land, we too have to be cunning and full of tricks, because they will kill us if they catch us, but so long as we use our wits, then we’ll survive too.” No one spoke for a while until Carrie realized there was only ten minutes until sunrise and fled for the safe rooftop where she would roost for the day.

“See you tonight, bunny-boy.” Bruce, realizing the same thing, tucked Tommy and Zach in and said,

“See you in a few hours, El-ahrairah, be good for the Scarecrow and the Hatter.” Bruce then went back to Jonathan’s lab so that he too could sleep for the day, with both men following him.

“You really think that’s the best story to tell a nine-year-old? I read the book too and it seemed a little intense.” Jonathan pointed out; after he read that book, he was never able to look at a rabbit the same way again.

“Give me a break; the first night the four of us were together Tommy begged me for a story and it was the first one I could think of. Are you sure it’s alright I spend the day in your supply closet?”

“A little late to be asking that for the third time, but yes, it’s alright and besides which, it’s the best area where I can keep you safe from the sun.” Jervis looked at him but Jonathan pretended not to see as the first rays of sunlight began to peak out over the buildings, and Bruce started slowing down, his movements becoming almost lethargic, causing Jervis to gently grab him and help him into said closet, which Jonathan then closed. The two allies (dare they call each other, friends?) stood in silence for a moments before Jervis spoke,

“So, for someone who always proclaimed to like solitude, your actions speak louder than your words.”

“If you are talking about my followers, fear spreads quicker with greater numbers.”

“You know I’m not.”

“And I already explained their presence to you earlier.”

“And I think you missed having Jerome and me around so, when you found someone with darkness similar to your own, you latched onto him and manipulated him to accept your partnership.”

“I offered protection in return for being taught fighting techniques, how is that manipulation?”

“Simple, you didn’t offer him the protection, you offered it to those who he would never refuse, his young ones. Might want to be careful, though Fantasy was more my cup of tea, I do remember reading somewhere that Master Vampires can be highly protective of their young, Sired or otherwise.”

“Jervis, I have work to do and you have two options; either get some sleep, or become my test subject, take your pick.” Jervis knew that Jonathan never kids when it came to his experiments so he went over to Jonathan’s pallet, removed his cape, his top hat, his suit jacket, his shoes, then laid his head down and was out like a light in minutes. Hours passed until sometime around midday when Tommy poked his head in and asked if he could do some foraging where he knew some wild mushrooms were growing that he knew were edible. Jonathan was so deep in his experiments that he merely told the young Meta, who had proved capable, to take someone with him, to which he agreed easily enough, something that should have tipped Jonathan off, but he never claimed to be a babysitter. A little while later, Jervis woke up and asked,

“Any idea how I should approach the baby Jabberwocky about teaching him the art of hypnosis? He seems to hold some disdain for it but from how the others spoke, it seems vital he learn it.” Jonathan thought for a moment then replied,

“The League mentioned something about a ‘block’ that Bruce was experiencing when they tried to teach it to him, figure out where the block is coming from, and see if you can help him overcome it. If all else fails, play the guilt card with the kids; as you said, he’s extremely protective of them to the point he almost broke my arm last night in guaranteeing their safety here. Now, there is almost an hour before sundown so he’ll be waking up soon but can’t leave the closet until closer to actual sundown, you go and talk to him while I see how Tommy fared.” Jonathan then left and Jervis set about getting himself ready to face a Jabberwock, even if it was an adolescent, the taint of James Gordon was all over him. He and Jonathan had extensive work ahead of them if they were to cleanse such a taint off of him and he could properly be one of them. Once he was ready, he steeled himself and entered the closet. He watched for a while until Bruce ‘awoke’, and noted how much younger he looked in his sleep as if he were not an undead knight who had lost his parents in such a violent manner at such a tender young age and was now heavily weighed down with responsibilities. Yes, he and Jonathan had a lot of work ahead of them, but for now, Bruce seemed to be awakening.

“Good evening Star shine.” Bruce groaned back at him,

“Can’t you and Crane just say hello and leave me alone?” Jervis pretended to think and responded

“That sounds rather boring, don’t you think?”

“Then can we please have any kind of conversation later, when I’m not so groggy? I need to leave for a little bit once the sun goes down but when I come back we can talk.”

“I thought you needed to learn hypnotism as quickly as possible?”

“Look, you’re good at what you do, case in point, you calmed me down faster than most last night, but maybe mind control just isn’t my thing? What I am good at is sneaking around undetected, I’m sure I can get what I need that way.” Jervis noticed something Bruce said and called him out on it.

“Interesting how you said ‘mind control’ when I referred to it as ‘hypnosis’.”

“What difference does that make?” Bruce snapped and Jervis was starting to get an idea of this block, so he sat down next to their little vampire and asked,

“Tell me of your experience with mind control.”

“Why? And what makes you think I have experience with it at all?”

“Because you would only find the ability itself distasteful if you had been on the receiving end; you know of my talents and what I have done, but that leads to distrust, not distaste, that comes from experience. Because you told us that the portal spell will require less power from casters themselves by drawing power from the full moon, something that is less than two weeks away. However, there are certain elements we need to acquire first, hidden in a place where hypnosis would aide in getting to. To do this, either you must impose your will on another and become the puppeteer, or you will have to sneak me into this location undetected so that I may do it for you. If we fail in doing such a thing, then we must either wait for next month’s full moon, or the casters will have to power the spell themselves, and doing so for so long would undoubtedly hurt them. So we must discover this block immediately and do our best to remove it.” Bruce flinched at the idea of any of his followers suffering because of him, and so he spoke.

“It was actually the year you came to Gotham; Alfred and I had been looking into the circumstances surrounding my parents’ deaths which lead us to the Court of Owls, a group of Gotham’s oldest and most elite families that secretly ran the city, even Wayne Industries. We were threatened into giving up the search but once it became apparent I wasn’t giving up, I was kidnapped and given to a man known as The Shaman while my clone replaced me so no one would suspect a thing.”

“You had a clone? Only in Gotham.” Bruce nodded at this before continuing,

“While I was with the Shaman, he got inside my head, convincing me that love was a lie and a weakness that was holding me back from my true destiny; to destroy the Court of Owls which had become corrupt, and save Gotham. Eventually, we returned to Gotham and he presented me with the opportunity to avenge my parents by sicking the Court’s own Talons, their most elite and deadliest members, on them, but I had enough control to not take it. The problem was, I felt like a failure because I had not taken the chance, and he assured me I would get a second chance, then he had me being polite to Hugo Strange of all people, even though I wanted to smash that freak’s face in.”

“I believe referring to such a mad man as a freak is an insult to Carrie, Jason, Zach, and Tommy.” Bruce snorted despite himself; part of him wanted to snap at Jervis for calling his quartet of Meta’s freaks, but the other part found it funny. Bruce grew somber again as he remembered the next part,

“I was given the detonator for the bomb the Court of Owl’s had developed using your sister’s blood, with the understanding that at the right time I would be the one to detonate the bomb. When Alfred killed him and subsequently set the bomb off, I was filled with such tremendous grief and rage, like I had lost my father all over again, over someone who had abused and brainwashed me.”

“You eventually broke his control though?”

“Yes, after stabbing and killing Alfred, a man who actually has been a father to me my whole life.” Jervis thought on this for a few moments; no wonder Bruce had such a block when it came to hypnosis.

“Well, to break through such conditioning on your own, even if it was with the aide of such trauma, your will must be quite powerful.”

“How powerful can it be when you were able to put me under just last night?” Jervis waved this away as though it were nothing.

“You were angry and distracted, I also imagine on some level you knew I only wanted to help you calm down before you hurt yourself or someone else. No, to break such a hold requires a will power not many possess, as well as stubbornness not many would appreciate. But our mutual power does not need to be used in such a way; tell me, why do the others feel you need to master it?”

“Like we discussed last night, the most effective position of the portal would be in Gotham river as it would require less energy all around, not to mention it’s less dangerous via the army. However, we still need at least a basic idea of where to place the other end of the portal. Carrie can fly high enough so as not to be seen by the army, but still low enough to give us a general idea, but the more clear in our minds it is, the better. You see, if the receiving end is too close to Gotham, then I have to avoid the mines, if it’s smack in the middle or too far down, that gives me less time to get actual supplies as I have to take into account how long it takes me to get from the portal to the mainland, and vice versa. So, if we can find a patch under the river that is close to shore but not so close that when I come out of it I jump out of the lake, as well as in or around an area not too heavily patrolled, huge bonus. But for us to do that, we need the geographical surveys the city does every year for us to find such a spot, but those maps are kept at City Hall and, while I can sneak around easily enough if I could hypnotize a guard into being something of a watchdog…”

“Yes, he could keep the corridor in question clear, allowing you time to find the map you need. Yes, indeed, I do indeed see why the others would be so bent on you learning to control our shared ability. There is no doubt now, you must learn control or I shall have to go with you.” Before Bruce could say anything, Jonathan came rushing in.

“Uh, we may have a… tiny… problem.” Bruce took note of the spiked heart rate and asked,

“By tiny problem, how tiny are we talking? About the size of a little boy, you said you’d keep an eye on? A ‘Tommy-sized’ problem?”

“He said he wanted to do some foraging, that he knew where to find some edible things. I told him to take one of my people with him.” Jonathan defended himself to the vampire who was slowly growing annoyed.

“Did you say one of your people or just ‘someone’?” Jonathan thought for a moment and replied

“What difference does that make?”

“Meaning you told a nine-year-old boy who is used to manipulating directives to get what he wants just to take someone with him, not specifying what type of person he should take. OK, he would only go with someone he trusts and I doubt he knows any of your people well enough, and Carrie is out for obvious reasons. If he left during the day, Jason is definitely out too; he hates going out during the day where people could potentially see him and scream at the sight of him, Tommy wouldn’t put him through that. Tommy can only contact the League if he’s in danger, and I haven’t felt anything by way of the medallion I gave him, so that leaves us with only one other person.”

“Zach/Zephyr.” Jonathan and Jervis said at the same time as Bruce stood to leave the closet, to which Bruce nodded before asking,

“You said he wanted to do some foraging, did he say what kind of foraging?” Jonathan thought back for a moment before he said,

“Mushrooms.” This caused Bruce to pause before groaning.

“What’s wrong?” Jonathan asked, to which Bruce replied,

“I know where Tommy and Zach are.” At that moment, before Bruce could elaborate, Erik entered the lab with Sandra right behind him.

“Apologies Master, for this intrusion, however -”

“Sorry about coming in unannounced Scarecrow but -”

“Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan are here, with Tommy and Zach.” Bruce face-palmed at this before mumbling great. A few minutes later, the five of them were in what could be considered a courtyard, though Bruce noticed Carrie, Jason, and his League members were also around, and Barbara’s Sisters of the League were present as well.

“So, I see the rumors about you are true, Bruce; you’ve teamed up with the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter.”

“While I appreciate the return of my two youngest teammates, who shall be given a firm reminder of the rules after this meeting, I know you well enough to know you have an ulterior motive for coming here yourself. One of the Sisters could easily have dropped them off and gotten you your confirmation with an apology from me for the intrusion.”

“Please, Bruce, apologies are unnecessary between us, given our history, but you are right about my reasons for coming here; Penn came to see us today.”

“Penguin’s Penn?” Tommy asked, trying to be witty.

“The Penn of the Penguin?” Zach countered.

“Boys, behave yourselves or Tatsu can get started on your punishments right now.” Both boys pantomimed zipping their mouths shut at Bruce’s warning.

“You know, it’s kind of cute seeing you act like such a dad around your kids. Anyways, Penn came to see us with an offer from Cobblepot; apparently, the cupboards are a little bare in Penguin-land so he offered us a thousand rounds of ammunition in return for a thousand pounds of steak.” Bruce and the others flinched; even Zach, who was quite possibly the last, most innocent of them all, knew how much Tabitha despised Oswald after what he did to Butch.

“I imagine you told him to tell his boss to go to hell?”

“Well, Tabby wanted to but you see, there’s a slight issue; each zone offers different things, Green offers safety for all, in Firefly’s territory you won’t freeze your ass off, you and Scarecrow take in teenagers and Meta-humans with a little backbone and every day, we get women seeking sanctuary from chauvinist pigs. To protect these women, we need ammo; not much kills a guys hard-on like a loaded gun aimed at it.” Bruce, Scarecrow, and Jervis all nodded at this.

“So you are going to heed Penguin’s offer?” Jervis asked, only to be scoffed at.

“Not on your life Hat-boy; I countered the offer with three thousand rounds of ammo for the meat as a way to stall. You see, I don’t want Tabitha to feel jilted in any way because of what Penguin did to Butch, but we need those rounds and then it hit me; who do I know that is really good at sneaking into places not many can sneak into? Who do I know that suddenly joined a much larger group who would be very thankful for getting so much food and wasn’t bothered by pesky things like morals over stealing from a murdering crook? And, perhaps most importantly, who do I know who needs to sneak into Penguin’s stronghold to get certain survey maps anyways and could probably sneak me out some ammo at the same time?”

“You want us to sneak into the Penguin’s territory, grab the maps necessary to help Gotham, and sneak out with three thousand rounds of ammo?” Jason asked as though clarifying.

“The base minimum of ammo for this deal is one thousand Lizzie, though if you want to get more that’s your prerogative.” Tommy tapped his cousin and asked,

“What does per- pera-, whatever she said, mean?”

“It’s a fancy way of saying choice now, shh.” Jason wasn’t mad at his cousin, but he was annoyed that he would take someone who didn’t have experience fighting with his powers.

“What do you say, Bruce? Interested?” Bruce thought on this before saying,

“As you said, I need those maps, leaving Jason and Tommy to get the ammo by themselves as Carrie is a little noticeable in crowded areas and Zach doesn’t have the experience we have at sneaking around undetected yet. A thousand rounds aren’t necessarily heavy, but I would worry about it slowing two pre-teens down.” Scarecrow bit his tongue at the dismissal of his people.

“Good thing you’ve recently acquired a larger group to help your boys carry all that ammo out then, isn’t it?” An almost false look of understanding illuminated Bruce’s face at this.

“Ah, you mean for Scarecrow’s people to share in the danger as well as the reward; I don’t speak for them. Scarecrow became a leader almost as soon as Gotham became No Man’s Land before I became one, his people will always listen to him before they listen to his partner. If you want his people to risk their lives for your needs, you will need to talk to him.” Scarecrow and Jervis realized this had been Bruce’s attempt to make Barbara understand they were equals, and Bruce hadn’t just taken control of Scarecrow’s territory. Barbara shrugged before looking to him and asking,

“What do you say, Scarecrow? Even with your numbers, a thousand pounds of meat could last you a long time, especially when combined with the goodies Bruce will get when he performs the ritual that will allow him to get into Star City.”

“It’s tempting Miss Kean, but as you know, all partners must discuss things before coming to a decision.” Scarecrow then turned with Jervis and Bruce to walk away a little bit before they discussed it.

“First things first, is she telling the truth about this deal? The last thing I want is to piss off Penguin and get no reward for it except him coming into my territory, guns blazing.” Jonathan asked Bruce who replied,

“The further a person away is, the trickier it becomes to tell them apart and see who’s lying, but I sensed no spiked heart rates from their side, and they would see no point in lying to me. The deal is real and it’s legit; pounds for rounds.”

“Secondly, how does she know about that ritual you’re going to be attempting?”

“No mystery about that one; even if the League didn’t think women could lead, they still all learned the same things, and she has access to the same resources I do when it comes to the mystic arts.”

“Thirdly, can your people train us to handle a job of this scale in so little time?”

“I’d say we have as much choice in this matter as a college student has on when to take his finals; whether he likes it or not, the date is set and all he can do is prepare. They’ll train your people hard, but they can at least thrum in the basics to true stealth, just as Jervis is going to have to do the same for me when it comes to mind co- hypnosis. What are your thoughts?” Bruce asked Jervis, who looked surprised at being consulted.

“I am no leader, nor warrior, nor ninja; I would not presume on either of your leaderships in your areas of expertise.”

“Maybe not, but a third opinion would hardly be remiss.” Jervis thought on it for a moment before nodding.

“Jon’s people are already very good at sneaking around, they just need a little refinement to keep up on such a mission, something your people can do, and in a hurry. We will need to go to Penguin’s stronghold regardless to get the maps for our grander mission, we might as well get something that would improve the pantry, as that would be less for you to retrieve.”

“Never mind that; I don’t care how much I have to get so long as there’s enough to get us through to the next month. What matters is are we in agreement that we should do this?” Jonathan and Jervis looked at each other and nodded. They walked back to Barbara and gave their answer,

“We’ll do it, but with the understanding, it won’t be done for quite a few days as we need time to plan.”

“Fine by me, just let me know when you are ready for the exchange and you’ll get your meat.” Barbara turned to leave when Bruce asked,

“Barbara, how much extra ammo would you require for a little extra meat? Say about three-hundred pounds?” This confused both men as a thousand pounds would last them for quite some time. Barbara sighed before responding,

“You know how I feel about her.”

“I know, and I also know it’s not on the same level as Tabitha hates Penguin; their territory has nothing to offer so I’m offering to get you extra ammo. Her territory has a lot of vulnerable people in it and three hundred pounds would help them until the full moon.” Barbara gave him something of a sardonic smirk as she replied,

“Bruce Wayne, guardian of Gotham, protector of children, defender of the defenceless, the guy who takes everyone else’s problems onto his own shoulders. Tell you what, you and I get along OK with our joint leadership of the League of Shadows, even if it’s different factions. You get me an extra six hundred rounds and I’ll give you… four-hundred pounds of meat for the Queen of the Narrows. Though, if you are so set on playing Gotham’s knight, you might want to pick up some extra ammo for Jim; last I heard he had more men than bullets, and he doesn’t have that many men.” Barbara left then, leaving Bruce to sigh as Jonathan whirled on him, and he must have been mad as he actually removed his mask to speak.

“You couldn’t have talked to me about this five minutes ago?”

“I’m not asking you to put your people in more danger than necessary; I will put Tommy, Erik, and Tatsu with you, and they will get the extra ammo. Lee needs food if her people are going to make it, and I can’t in good faith leave Jim Gordon with no way of protecting his own territory, even if you and Jervis don’t care for him.”

“You realize they did try and shoot my people?”

“You stole from them first, including medicine my best friend needed after her surgery. Now, among everything else I have to do tonight, I have to set punishments for two boys that should have known better than going off on their own, so if you want to continue this discussion, you can come with me to the Narrows or you can stay here and vent your frustrations with training where we’ll continue our discussion then.” Bruce and Jonathan glared at each other for some time before Bruce went over to the youngest members.

“Tommy, I know you were trying to help improve the food supplies, but you should have taken someone with you. And no, Zach does not count as one, he is barely a year older than you, and secondly, he has had very little training with his abilities and absolutely none when it comes to fighting. By taking only him with you, especially when we are not positive you are not suffering any ill effects from being struck in the face with a pipe, you put both of yourselves in very real danger. Zach, I know Tommy can be manipulative, and he probably informed you it was OK with Scarecrow that just the two of you go, but as the elder of the two, did it not occur to you to ask someone older to come with you?” Tommy and Zach both looked down at their scolding.

“OK, Zach, you will run ten laps around each building, and then you will work with Sandra and Jerry to hone your powers. You have admirable control over the wind aspect of your powers, but if you are going to survive out here, admirable simply won’t cut it. You need to summon a whirlwind in a moment’s notice, call on rain and snow without being nervous or scared, use fog and summon lightning as both weapons and scare tactics. After that, you will be given books to read, books on sciences, maths, and other subjects, including books on medicine since you already have some basic knowledge that should be expanded on. Seeing as how you had enough time to go wondering today after you get some sleep later, you should have enough time to read the first three chapters of each of these books and write well thought out reflections for each.” Zach gulped at this; it didn’t sound like much, but he had no doubt he would be given more than a couple of books.

“Tommy, you will be coming with me and Michael to Lee’s territory to get checked out, and, depending on her diagnosis, you’ll either have your own laps to do or your own readings. If Lee gives you the all-clear you’ll run laps and work on refining your powers, particularly the manipulation of optic nerves as that will help us with Barbara’s order. If Lee tells us you should be under observation for a time, you’ll simply do your readings until you are caught up with Jason and Carrie.”

“But they are almost college level! I’m barely on high school stuff!” Tommy protested, to which Bruce raised an eyebrow.

“If you had done your readings today instead of going off by yourself, you would not be being punished, now would you? However, given how grounded you are right now, you’ll probably be caught up to your cousins in about a month. I am also going to be asking Scarecrow to assign someone to keep an eye on you during the day.”

“I don’t need a babysitter!”

“Obviously you need someone to keep an eye on you as this little excursion shows you are not as mature as I thought. If you want my estimations of your maturity to rise back up to where they were, you will accept your punishment and get ready to head out.” Tommy sulked as he went to drop off the mushrooms in the storeroom. Bruce turned to find Jervis right behind him.

“It was often not easy when I had to lay down rules for my sister, but it had to be done.”

“Can you please not compare the punishment I am enforcing to make sure those kids stay alive to see Gotham reunited with the mainland to the punishments you implemented to keep the sister you had incestuous feelings for in line? Scarecrow, do you want to come to the Narrows with me or stay here and work on your skills?” Scarecrow saw the look of hurt that flashed across Jervis’ face at both the cold comment, as well as the mention of his sister, and decided to act.

“I’ll stay here baby, as there’s no way I’m missing out on the chance to get one over on Penguin, that back-stabbing bird-brain. Though, you should take Jervis with you as he needs to work on getting used to jumping rooftops.” Bruce and Jervis both stared at the Master of Fear.

“Did you, by any chance, miss the memo that Lee Thompkins, a woman Tetch kidnapped, held at gunpoint, shot a woman in front of her after threatening to shoot her, and, oh yeah, infected her husband with a rage virus that caused him to try and kill her and ended with Gordon killing him in front of her, is the Queen of the Narrows?”

“If you are going to help her keep the Narrows alive and well, you might as well tell her about your partnerships now instead of letting her find out through other means.” Bruce wished he could argue such a thing due to how dangerous it was (about the same level of Tabitha and Oswald or him and Jeremiah being in the same room with nothing holding them back), but it was also valid.

“Keep your mouth shut around Lee or she will castrate you, something I really doubt you want to happen.” Jervis nodded as Tommy returned, Michael appeared, and the four took off for the Narrows.

In the Narrows

Bruce, Tommy, Michael, and Jervis all landed outside Lee’s ring where she conducted her business, and Bruce walked up to a man who looked like he could crush them with one hand.

“Hi, Vincent.”

“Hiya Bats, the Doc expecting you tonight?”

“Not really; she might have something for me but Tommy needs to be looked at and I have some news for her.”

“Um, why is the Mad Hatter with you? Do you need help?” Jervis all but hid behind Michael as the behemoth leaned towards Bruce, trying to assess their situation.

“No, and that’s one of the things I need to tell the Doc.”

“OK, it’s his funeral if he wants to go in there.” Vincent then stood aside and allowed the quartet inside. There were various people around, and two of them seemed to be engaged in some kind of a contest on who could eat the most cockroaches without throwing up. Jervis wanted to gag, only to suddenly be pushed behind Bruce as indeed, Lee Thompkins came out of her office, with a less than pleased look on her face.

“Bruce, have you lost your mind?”

“Jury’s out on that one, how are you by the way?”

“Don’t play cute, what the hell are you doing with Jervis Tetch of all people?”

“It’s a somewhat long story, which I’ll tell you if you take a look at Tommy for me.” Lee’s anger shifted into concern as she looked at the little boy who was watching the competition until he sensed eyes on him, and turned to smile at her.

“Hi, Doc! What’s up?”

“He appears to be his usual, chipper self, what happened?”

“The Devil Gang was getting ready to assault a woman and we intervened, but Tommy decided it was a wonderful time to use a technique he had yet to perfect and the result was a pipe to the face. He hasn’t shown any signs of a concussion, nor problems breathing so his nose isn’t broken, thankfully, but with head wounds, it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Lee looked like she desperately wanted to smack Bruce, but nodded instead.

“This story had better be good.”

“Oh, I think it is, but if you aren’t satisfied with it, I do have some news that might brighten things up a bit for you.”

“Good, wait here with Tetch and make sure he doesn’t try anything. Michael can stay with Tommy.” Lee gently took Tommy’s hand and lead him back to her office with Michael in tow before she shut the door. Bruce grabbed a couple of chairs and was resolved to sit and wait in silence until Jervis spoke in a whisper,

“I did not have incestuous thoughts about my sister.”

“According to both Gordon and Lee, Alice said otherwise.”

“I know, and that was my fault, but not in the way you are thinking, may I please explain?” Bruce initially wanted to tell Jervis to shut up, but as he thought about it, no one, not even Jim, had ever really asked Jervis about their relationship, and his mother always said that every story has two sides to it.

“Alright, I have nothing better to do while we wait for Tommy, go ahead.”

“It is true that Alice accidentally infected our father with her blood, causing him to murder our mother and then kill himself, but I was able to help her understand that she had not done it intentionally or with malice aforethought, thus waylaying her guilt. I was old enough to become her guardian and I worked hard to look after her, only for her to start to show an interest in boys and I knew it was only a matter of time before that interest evolved into… other things. I panicked; what if she was somehow careless and her blood infected her beau, who could then become violent not just to others, but her? My darling little sister? Teenagers sometimes get so lost in the moments of passion and lust that they are not as careful as they should be. So many thoughts ran through my head as I thought more and more on it, including the selfish fear that I would be left behind; I only had hoped to instill in her a… shall we say, revulsion? To the idea of coitus in her teenage years, and the idea that I knew how best to care for her to reduce any chance of her accidentally infecting someone, such as what happened in the bar and to her landlord.

But, in those days, my abilities were still in their infant stages, sometimes too powerful for their own good; instead of a simple desire to remain celibate until teenage hormones calmed, it became the thought that she and I were romantically attracted to each other. She, like you, was able to break the command before she could act on it and, in the confusion, she thought I had meant to… perform acts with her, and ran. I tracked her down to Gotham, with the hopes that I could convince her that those thoughts were not my intention.”

“And the dead doctor? His wife? Trying to get Gordon to jump off a ledge? Were those all misunderstandings as well?” Bruce asked, if he was being honest, there was some chance that there was some truth in what Jervis was saying, though the truth was probably somewhere in the middle.

“I never claimed to be a saint or even a good person, and before my abilities developed, I was often teased and tormented by my peers; you see, we didn’t have much money, but my sister and I managed to get into a very good school, not as prestigious as the ones you went to, but still very good. This was achieved by our mother working like a dog and father kowtowing to high-up individuals who always looked down on him. Thus, when they developed, I used them to get my revenge on those who had tormented me; you see, I didn’t have someone like you to make sure I didn’t, as you would see it, abuse my gifts. The doctor and his wife had something I wanted, so I used them to get it and then got rid of them, as for the valiant James Gordon, he had discovered the truth about my sister’s affliction, and I feared she would be locked-up in the case of ‘public interests’.” Bruce looked at him for a long time before asking,

“And how do I know you are telling the truth?” Jervis smiled at Bruce and replied,

“We both know you know I am.” Jervis put one hand on Bruce’s wrist to illustrate his point before continuing.

“But that is neither here nor there, what matters is what goes on today; with Alice gone, and no true direction to follow, I wish to keep my beloved March Hare safe from the horrors this world would rain down on him for being different. He has certain qualities in common with you, such as a desire to lead on his own, a level of stubbornness, and the inability to ask for help. I will not allow these less than stellar character traits to lead him to his doom, and for that, I need someone as stubborn as he is. When I’m around Jonathan, the screams of my poor spitted Alice are not so loud, and the bleakness of Gotham fades into the beauty of Wonderland. You and he are not so different, except you had someone to pull you out of the depths of insanity your grief could have caused, Jonathan was tossed aside and forgotten, because of his father’s crimes. Tell me, Bruce, is that a good enough reason to leave someone in a nightmarish hell where one can never escape?” Bruce looked away at that; if there was one thing he had never agreed with, it was how Jonathan Crane, before he truly became the Scarecrow, was handled after everything. Instead of getting him some real help, he was thrown away, deemed incurable after his father gave him an overdose of fear serum. Jonathan lost his mother to fire and his father to gunfire, just like Bruce had, but while Bruce had received the pity and condolences of the city, Jonathan had been thrown into Arkham asylum where no one even tried to help him because he was the son of a man driven mad with grief. Yes, Gerald Crane had done terrible things in the name of science, and Jonathan had helped him, but they were father and son, family; why did that make Jonathan worth less than Bruce? Jervis seemed to find Bruce’s silence as the correct answer (whatever it was), for he continued.

“I need my March Hare to even remotely function, and I like to think he needs me too-” Bruce interrupted Jervis for a moment as he said,

“I think he does; when he saw it was you that had wandered into his territory last night, and you whom Erik had caught eavesdropping on us, his heart rate spiked, and not in fear or anger, I think he was legitimately happy to see you. He needs you, or at least, he wants you, and sometimes what we want is just as important as what we need.” This made Jervis preen for a moment at the thought he had made Jonathan actually happy before he continued his thoughts,

“But in the same breath, I think we need you, and not just for what you can get us or teach us.” Bruce scoffed and replied,

“I have nothing to give you two except what I’ve offered, I don’t even qualify as human anymore, what more could you need or want from me?”

“I don’t know what it is yet, but there is something, I can almost see it in you, wanting to break free, but Jonathan will not admit his needs or wants, so I have to figure out just how it is we three fit together. It’s almost like working on a puzzle; once the edges are done, you work on finding similar colored pieces so you can put sections together, then work on how they come together to form the completed picture. Our sections are almost complete, and from there, the next step is figuring out what goes where to complete the picture.” Bruce wondered if this was how it felt for Jim when he had to talk to Jervis. His thoughts were interrupted when Lee and Michael came out with Tommy trailing behind.

“Nothing to worry about; the kid’s head is as hard as yours when it comes to taking hits and besides, I don’t think the pipe hit him that hard at all, he got more bruising from hitting the wall next to him and the bloody nose came from the strain of his ability. Though, if you want to be on the perfectly safe side, avoid stressful things that would cause a mental strain for tonight.” Lee said as the two males joined Bruce and Jervis.

“Guess that means I shouldn’t do any reading tonight, huh Doc?” Bruce leveled a small glare at Tommy for the remark.

“Michael told me what happened and I agree to Tommy and your new one, Zach, needing to be punished for being reckless, but I think books for this one should be kept for the daytime when he won’t stress his eyes, and you may want to lay off the training tonight.” Tommy had been smirking until Lee said this.

“Wait, what?! You said mental strain, not physical!”

“Tommy, don’t raise your voice to Dr. Thompkins and let her explain.” Bruce scolded his youngest teammate, who seemed to be acting up rather badly tonight.

“Well, it’s actually his own fault since he went galavanting around Barbara’s territory with a boy who is only a year older than him instead of staying with Scarecrow’s group who would have kept an eye on him or taken one of them with him. Also, as I said, I could find no signs of residue trauma, but just in case I’m wrong, and he is suffering from any kind of damage, I don’t want him to be doing back-flips, get dizzy, lose his balance, and fall smack dab on his head.” Bruce nodded, finding this to be sound reasoning.

“Now, you want to explain to me what the hell you are doing with Jervis Tetch?” So, Bruce explained the whole situation involving the raid on the Green Zone, the subsequent retrieval of the stolen goods, capture by Scarecrow, their deal, and how Tetch came to be part of the group.

“Oh, I can just imagine how Jim’s going to react to this; in less than forty-eight hours you’ve gone from a solo leader of three Meta-humans, and seven assassins, to a partnership with both the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter, both of whom he has such a wonderful relationship with, not to mention you are training Scarecrow’s people to be better killers.”

“I’ve told the League to teach his people non-lethal methods, disarm and disable only; they have strict instructions on this and they won’t disobey them.”

“And you think Scarecrow’s people will just stop like you do? That once their attackers (or prey) are down and out, they will just walk away?” Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose as he replied,

“What am I supposed to do, Lee? Jim may be content to let the criminals of Gotham kill each other just so long as the Green Zone is safe, but almost ninety percent of Scarecrow’s group is made up of teenagers either abandoned or who ran away from abusive situations, and the other ten is mostly pre-teens like Jason and Zach. Their lives matter just as much as those in the Green Zone; maybe I can’t stop them from killing when I’m not around, but when they are surrounded by monsters who would gladly rape, mutilate, and kill them, they still deserve the best chance for survival they can get.” Lee looked at him for a long time before responding,

“You know, you have a lot of your father’s features but that right there? That was all your mother; she was one of the biggest advocates for properly fixing up the Narrows even before I came along and when someone said something nasty about her cause, she radiated righteous fury. Right Philip?” Lee turned to an older gentleman who was startled at being addressed before he responded,

“Oh yes, yes indeed, Martha Kane may have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth but she, like all the other Kane’s, was always willing to take that spoon out and use it to get dirty if it was for a good cause. You, you’ve got a lot of your mother’s fire, boy, don’t let anyone put it out.” Philip then wandered away, mumbling to himself, leaving Bruce with a bemused expression on his face; he had always wanted to be like his father, but often forgot how much he really was like his mother.

“Tommy and Michael also told me you have good news for me?” Bruce snapped out of his musings at Lee’s question and responded,

“Yeah, I’ve made a deal that will get your territory four-hundred pounds of meat, that should hold your lot, along with the supplies I’ll be getting you on the full moon.”

“And just what do you have to do for Barbara to get this meat?” Bruce shuffled for a moment before answering,

“Scarecrow, Hatter, and I, along with some of the others will break into Penguin’s territory, steal the maps I need for the ritual, as well as two-thousand rounds of ammo; sixteen-hundred for Barbara and four-hundred for Jim. I know that’s not a lot for Jim but I don’t want to take too much of a chance with how gun happy Penguin’s men can be and-”

“You know, I think the jury’s in, Bruce and you are almost certifiably crazy! You are going to steal from Penguin?! You may not know what bullets do to your new, undead body, but you know what they do to human bodies like Crane’s and Tommy’s!”

“I know all that, hence why, when we leave here we are going to formulate a plan on how best to attack this situation. Lee, your group will get four-hundred pounds, and the Scarecrow’s people will get one-thousand; with that much meat they won’t have to raid the Green Zone again!”

“And Penguin will come after them!”

“He won’t have any proof that we were the ones who stole from him and while I know he doesn’t require proof to act, he is actually quite frightened of Scarecrow’s fear toxin, Tetch’s ability to take away his will power, and he’s just straight-up scared of me. It did not take long for Barbara to find out about my partnership with Scarecrow, and I doubt it will take long for it to reach Penguin. Lee, this one raid will help so many; Barbara and Jim get ammo, you and Scarecrow will get food, I get the maps which are one of the last elements we need for the ritual, and Penguin will lose some of his armory that will help protect the Green Zone. Not to mention I think Tabitha will enjoy this chance to metaphorically spit in Penguin’s eye.”

“Bruce, the problems of Gotham are not yours to take on, especially not alone!” Bruce, however, straightened up and replied,

“Tommy, thank Dr. Thompkins again for looking at your wounds, it’s time we head back to the Dark Zone and get started on your punishment.”

“Knowing it will only get worse if I try and stall, I shall simply say, thank you, Dr. Thompkins, goodbye, and don’t worry about Bats; he’ll come up with the best plan so we all win and bird-brain loses.” The four then left Lee and the Narrows, and Lee damned the Valeska’s, Ra’s Al Ghul, the Court of Owls, though perhaps the person she damned the most was not Matches Malone, a man who destroyed Bruce’s childhood, but Jim Gordon, the one she firmly believed was Bruce’s inspiration for how to act like an adult. Too bad it was how to act like an adult on a constant suicide mission.

Back at Scarecrow’s Territory

Bruce had been thinking about how to punish Tommy ever since they left the Narrows, since he usual methods were out, and thought back to how Alfred or his parents had punished him the few times he had been bad and came upon an idea. As the four of them landed in Scarecrow’s courtyard, he was happy to see Jervis wasn’t breathing quite as hard as he had the night before, though his legs were probably burning like hell. He saw that Jonathan was currently in a fight with his scythe against Tatsu and her katana, and he was uncertain if Zach was merely trying to make it rain or foggy; the two types of weather seemed to be warring with each other.

“Master, I trust the visit to the Narrows was fruitful?” Erik asked as he popped out of nowhere with Jason in tow; while Tommy had been getting checked out, Erik and Jason had taken a run down to a junk store the latter knew of but his parents had never let him go in. The League found it distasteful how much Americans threw away in general, but as Jason pointed out, one man’s garbage was another man’s treasure, which included something he found for Tommy.

“Oh, great; I got called crazy by Lee for becoming partners with Scarecrow and Hatter, read the riot act because of our plans for getting Barbara’s ammo, and I think she thinks I’m a suicidal idiot for doing everything.” When he saw Jason nodding at this description, he flicked him.

“Well, they often say the best people are crazy.” Jonathan groused as he limped over, he didn’t even want to think about how much Tatsu had been holding back this time.

“Hey Tommy, check out what Erik and I found in a junk store.” Jason then dug into his sack, which obviously was one of the ones that were larger on the inside as, in a scene straight out of Doctor Who, he pulled out an old-fashioned, antique sewing machine with the table attached to it.

“Oh cool! Mrs. Laurey had one of those and she taught me how to sew with it!” Tommy exclaimed as he looked at the sewing machine that honestly looked like all it needed was some oil to get the parts moving smoothly again. When Erik had seen it, in such good condition, he had made a rather harsh comment on the wastefulness of Americans, prompting Jason to reply with the well-honored phrase, one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.

“Who’s ‘Mrs. Laurey’?” Jonathan asked as he removed his mask which now had a big gash in it thanks to Tatsu, she had even damaged the mechanism for his fear gas so he had been unable to use it in the fight.

“My former neighbor, pre-Valeska mania as we called it. Since my mom was often high or ‘entertaining’ men, I had no desire to be in our apartment, so I often spent most of the day and a good chunk of the evening with her and her nephew. She was a retired teacher who had taken up dressmaking and alterations to fill her days, and taught me a lot, including sewing and cooking.”

“You know, Jason, I’m glad you found this for Tommy as it will help with his and Zach’s punishments.” Tommy, who had been admiring the antique until now, gulped as he looked at Bruce.

“It will? How?” Jason asked his leader, rather confused. Zach came over when Bruce made a motion to Jerry, and poor Zach looked ready to collapse after his intense workout.

“Well, Lee says Tommy checks out OK but she doesn’t want him to do anything too stressful so no reading and no workouts tonight but he undoubtedly needs to be punished for breaking the rules, so I thought about it as we were running back, and came up with a solution.”

“What did you come up with, baby?” Bruce sighed at the endearment, once again wondering why Jonathan called him that when he didn’t call Jervis that or anything like it.

“Well, sweetie, Tommy, like most kids his age has one particular chore he hates more than any other so, to drive home how monumentally stupid what he and Zach did was, he’s going to spend the rest of the night on his punishment.” Jonathan actually thought it was rather cute how Bruce was trying to get under his skin with the endearment comebacks. And the smile that graced his face as he talked about Tommy and Zach’s punishment was just this side of… malevolent, and it was more than a little attractive, made more so by how nervous Tommy was becoming.

“Why… am I… included… in this? I… thought… my punishment… was… set.” Zach panted out; he really wasn’t used to such rigorous actions after being cooped up in his apartment for three months.

“Because without your help it will take Tommy forever to get through his punishment, and, even if what he did was reckless, I don’t want to work him like a dog and wear him out. I also thought you would enjoy breaking off from hard labour to do boring, repetitive work that requires no thought and minimal effort, only simple movements. If, however, you wish to continue your training and then hit the books that is entirely up to you, no one is g-”

“I’ll do it, please.” Zach all but begged, he didn’t care what they would be doing, just so long as they were sitting and he could shut his mind off; next time he listened to Tommy about going somewhere without someone older than them, it had better be life or death.

“Good boy; now, first of all, you are going to wash up everyone’s dishes from this evening’s meal.” Tommy made a face at this; he always hated washing dishes at home with his mother, and he hated it when it was his turn to wash the dishes he, Jason, and Carrie acquired before they joined Scarecrow’s group, now it was going to be even worse. However, what made him concerned was how Bruce said ‘first of all’… that never boded well.

“Secondly, Adrian tells me he was able to acquire some clothes that the others can wear during their training, but he only found them after today’s training session so, guess what part two of your punishment is?” Both boys groaned at the question; you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the next part.

“We have to wash and dry everyone’s clothes that they’ve been sleeping and training in?!” Tommy was starting to wish he had just asked Frankie or Joey to come with them; it would be a lot less painful (not to mention smelly) than this.

“At least the drying part won’t be so bad; after all that washing, my muscles won’t be so sore and I can summon a nice, warm wind to help dry the clothes.” Zach offered, though it did little to raise Tommy’s spirits, especially when Bruce said,

“You could do that or you can let them dry naturally while you work on the third part of your punishment.” Jervis and Jonathan couldn’t help the smirks that broke across their faces as the boys moaned; Bruce could certainly be a slave driver when you annoyed him enough, couldn’t he?

“There’s more?!”

“Tommy, when you went out today with no supervision, any number of things could have happened; you could have been attacked by one of the other gangs and Zach has no experience when it comes to using his powers in a fight. You could have found out in the worst possible way that that blow to the head, which we now know wasn’t serious, but over sixteen hours ago looked like it could have been a concussion, was, in fact, fatal, leaving Zach alone and afraid, and we would have had no way to look for you because you didn’t give Scarecrow any indication of where you were going. Suppose one of you didn’t watch where you were going and you fell down one of the crevasses that have recently opened up around the city, how would you have gotten out? Tommy, I’m not saying you should be afraid of going outside, but you have to plan for both possibilities and eventualities; you and Zach both have amazing powers, but they don’t make you invincible.” Tommy and Zach had both paled at the implications and Bruce gave them a moment to let those thoughts sink in before he continued,

“Now, the third, and final part of your punishment, Tommy, has to do with that machine Jason gave you; since you are the best at sewing, you are the one who is going to repurpose those clothes and curtains we acquired in last night’s raid. You are going to make some additional clothing for all of Scarecrow’s people.” Jason tried to let out a whistle at this, though sadly it came out as more of a hiss, the sentiment was all the same.

“That… Bats, all of that’s going to take me forever!” Bruce appeared unsympathetic as he replied,

“Today, instead of proving how mature you are to our new teammates, all you did was act without thinking of the consequences, and therefore, proved that it’s simply not safe for you to have free, unsupervised time to yourself. So, you are going to wash the dishes for everyone, you are going to wash their clothes no matter how long it takes, you will take measurements to help things along, get some sleep, then when you wake up, you will get to work on making those clothes, and if you have any free time, you will use it to further your readings along. Zach, as you’ve already done a tough workout, you can either help Tommy with his sewing or get started on your own readings, it will be entirely up to you. Tommy, if you get to the dishes right now, and don’t complain anymore when Carrie comes back from her nightly flight, I will ask her and Jason to help you, now get going.” Tommy was almost in shock at this so Zach grabbed him and led him over to where the dishes had been piling up, and Lukas set down a pot of water he had gathered from the Valven River which emptied into the much larger Gotham River. He told the boys they had found a large pot that would be perfect for washing the clothes in when they were ready and had gathered them some firewood and kindling to warm the water. It would be up to them to light it when the time came, but Zach was certain he could light the fire as his mama had taken him camping before, and she had never believed in doing things the easy way.

“You are a tough taskmaster, you know that right?” Jonathan asked as Adrian came along with a change of clothes for each of them, with clear instructions they too were to change and add to Tommy’s load. Bruce sighed as he and the others moved to a small alcove for some privacy while they changed.

“I don’t like setting out such punishments but he has to learn that rules exist for a reason; when I first took to the streets to help Gotham, Alfred only let me out because he had spent years training me. He also had to save my ass more than once because I lept before I looked, that’s what I’m trying to instill in Tommy, to plan and avoid the unnecessary dangerous situations.” Jonathan and Jervis agreed that it had been foolish of Tommy going off with only Zach in tow; Mary had been older than Tommy and she had been badly torn apart when Scarecrow found her. The three men set about removing their clothes, but Jonathan was having trouble with the binder around his chest, so Jervis came over to help him.

"What else is going on tonight? Tommy will be consumed with his punishment, Jason and Carrie may help him out and might not, what are you going to do?”

“We need to talk about the best way to infiltrate Penguin’s stronghold undetected; I have the germ of an idea but you and I should talk it out to figure out finer details. After that, Jervis and I are going to see if I can overcome this block I have concerning hypnosis. If I can’t, we will have to improve Jervis’ own stealth capabilities so he can come with me.” As Bruce talked, he removed his shirt and the other two men were stunned for a moment over just how many scars the young man had.

“Nice of you to include me in the planning phase.” Jonathan snarked, though he yelped when Jervis pinched him.

“Look, I am trying to make things equal between our two groups, but you can’t get mad at me just because I’ve been trying to come up with a plan that won’t get us all killed the minute we step foot in the compound. And, not to be mean but we need a better plan than gassing the guard at the gate and freaking him out so he’ll open the door; Penguin’s men are a lot more willing to shoot you than Gordon’s were. Planning is what I do, it’s how I make sure that things don’t go wrong which end up in any of us getting hurt because I try to plan for disasters.”

“Sounds like you have issues with control, baby.”

“I can come up with a plan on the fly if need be, but I have three Meta’s that trust me with their safety, something I happen to take very seriously. Now, let’s stop all the arguing and get on with it.” Bruce then pulled on a black, button-down t-shirt. Before they could get down to it though, Jason came over.

“Hey Boss, since it will take Tommy and Zach some time to get through the dishes, I doubt you’ll be needing me to help them any time soon, so what do you want me to do?” Bruce thought for a moment before replying,

“Why don’t you go make some hardtack? You are the best at making it.” Jason made a face at the odd word.

“I know you don’t like it but it’s easy and lasts a long time.” Jason nodded as he grabbed a few bags of flour and a couple of boxes of salt then went to his own station.

“What is hardtack?” Jervis asked the young vampire as he moved his shoulders about, trying to get comfortable as it had been a long time since he had worn something as plebeian as a t-shirt, even if it did fit him rather well. Bruce responded,

“A type of bread/biscuit they used to make during the war that Alfred taught me to make before I left the Green Zone; it’s dry and hard as shit, but easy to make since it only needs water, salt, and flour, and it can actually last for years if you keep it dry. The kids would often use whatever condiments we’d find to both soften them up as well as make them taste better, and if you break them into small pieces, they do a good job of thickening soup. Now, I know I have a map here somewhere.” Bruce mumbled as he started rooting around in one of the sacks they had used to gather the rest of their supplies. Jonathan pulled out a couple of candles they had managed to scrounge and lit them so he and Jervis could see what Bruce wanted them to see. Bruce made a small noise of triumph as he pulled out a map, this one was obviously from before the division as, while each territory was marked, they were hand-drawn, and the stamp that read GCPD in the corner, also showed it was printed last year.

“Gordon give you this?” Jonathan asked though he noticed Bruce averted his eyes for a moment and mumbled,

“Not exactly, I… procured it when I heard they were going to be making a new one reflect everyone’s respective territories.”

“Meaning you stole it,” Jervis said with a manic grin at the idea of someone Gordon had practically adopted stealing from him.

“They were going to be printing up a new one so it’s not like I left them high and dry! Now, can we please get to planning?”

“OK, plan man, what’s your idea?”

“Alright, now one of the biggest things we need to do is see if Penguin has his men on some kind of schedule because if he does, we can exploit it to our benefit. As much as I don’t like rushing things, we should plan to do the raid the night before the full moon; it’s twelve days away, and this night is already half done, so that gives us nine days to study their routines, find a weak point in their defences, and exploit it on the eleventh day.” Jonathan and Jervis both nodded that the idea of waiting until the last night was sound, and waited for him to elaborate.

“Now, Penguin’s stronghold has three high walls and is blocked off at the back by the Johnson building; the advantage this gives us is that the Johnson building is very high up and is well known for having gargoyles all around it, meaning Carrie can perch up there, look for patterns in the compound and, even if someone should manage to see her, she’ll still blend in. Now, I think, for the outer walls, we should have at least three people, one for each, watching the guards, again, looking for patterns, but I have no idea how to actually get in there; Penguin has been burned, I think, even more times than I have. Fish Mooney, Salvatore Maroni, Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Theo Galavan, Hugo Strange, all of these people, and more used and hurt Penguin, turning him into a highly paranoid person that will have given orders to shoot anyone who comes into his territory without his OK. And I can just imagine how thrilled he will be to see two of his old teammates from the Legion of Horribles who knocked him unconscious and tied him up in the blimp that was set to release Jerome’s laughing gas on the city.” Bruce didn’t expect either man to look repentant over what they did, and admittedly, neither was.

“Um…” All three men turned and saw Zach standing near the doorway, holding the clothes they had discarded earlier.

“Is something wrong, Zach?” Bruce asked.

“No, I uh, I was just coming to get the clothes you wanted Tommy and me to wash as we are done the dishes and wished to get started on the laundry as quickly as possible so, while the water is being brought to a boil, he and I are collecting the clothes. I heard you talking about ways to infiltrate Penguin’s fortress and, I thought I had an idea but it is stupid.” Zach turned to leave, only for Bruce to appear right in front of him.

“Shit, baby, you weren’t kidding about your speed, were you?” Jonathan asked as he hadn’t even seen Bruce twitch, let alone move.

“Sorry if I scared you Zach, but I wanted to hear your idea.” Bruce knelt down to pick up the clothes Zach had dropped in his fright.

“But it really is so stupid.”

“There are no such things, as stupid ideas, young Zachary, merely ideas in infancy, just waiting to bloom into brilliance,” Jervis stated with a little flair, causing Jonathan to flick him.

“OK, what if you used the sewers? Penguin may be paranoid but he wouldn’t have people down there, would he? I mean, we can enter the sewers from here and make our way down to city hall, and no one would ever see us coming, like the rooftops, only, underground. There has to be a manhole cover that would come up between the munitions factory where we will get the ammo and city hall where the maps are located, yes? As I said, it was a stupid idea and-” Zach was surprised when Bruce gave him a quick hug and said,

“Zach, you’re a genius! Jason can check out the sewers tomorrow night to see if Penguin does actually guard them, but I don’t think they will, as not even Penguin would think someone would use the sewers in such a way!”

“Baby, there are two problems with that as, one, how are we going to make sure it’s safe to leave the sewers and enter the stronghold, and secondly, it’s possible no one thought to use the sewers because of the smell; it’s pretty rank down there.” Bruce’s face fell and Jonathan felt an odd twinge in his chest at the thought he made Bruce lose that spark in his eyes he had had moments ago.

“Actually, I can help with the second problem; before I was able to get the windows in the apartment open, the air would get very stale, so I learned how to purify it so I could breathe properly. It may take some practice, but I would try very hard to learn it in time.” Zach too, was sad when his leader had looked disappointed, so he tried to cheer him up.

“Yes, and Carrie would be able to let us know when the coast is clear with these.” Bruce again went to the sack that had their non-edible items and pulled out a set of walkie-talkies as well as a pair of binoculars.

“But how can we be certain which manhole to use?”

“Maps of the sewer lines are public record, I believe. We just have to go down to the public library, which thankfully was not part of City Hall’s area so Penguin doesn’t have access to it. Would you be willing to send someone during the day to pick up those maps? As you and Jervis can stay awake during the daytime, you can figure out the most direct path we should take as well as which manhole would place us closest to our targets. Hopefully, they are large enough to accommodate a fair number of us, I don’t know about you, but I was thinking at least six on your team, including Tatsu, Erik, and Tommy, as well as Jason, Jervis if I can’t manage the hypnosis on my own, and myself for the other team. Including Zach to try and clear the air for us, that makes ten people, I’m not sure how maneuverable we’ll be.”

“The tunnels are very large, Mr. Bat; my Uncle Luis worked in sanitation and said that you could hide a hippo down there, but you must also be careful because the sewers of Gotham are a regular labyrinth. He told me that during the civil war, there was a time where Gotham was captured by Confederate soldiers, and your union soldiers would use the tunnels as a secret meeting place to take back their homes. Once the war was over, some thought the tunnels should be filled, but others voted to seal them and turn them into the sewers.” Zach informed the men.

“In that case -”

“Hey Zach, you got their stuff yet? The water’s hot and I’ve set up a clothesline so let’s get this show on the road; your punishment might be over and done with once it’s done, but I still have a lot to do!” Tommy shouted as he walked past with a large bundle of clothes in his arms.

“I better get going, bye!” Zach grabbed their stuff and went to follow Tommy.

“So, as the plan stands right now, Carrie will be our eyes, Jason will inspect the sewers, my people will try and figure out patterns, and we’ll be split into two groups. Is that about right, Baby?” Jonathan asked, and Bruce nodded.

“We’ll go over finer details tomorrow, once we’ve hopefully acquired the maps to the sewers. For now, Jervis and I should work on my hypnotic abilities and, though I’m loathed to improve your fear toxin in any way, the truth is, in case we get into trouble, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have an ace in the hole. I’d like to know if you would be willing to work with Adrian and Lukas on making special smoke bombs some being fear bombs or, preferably, sleep bombs. Lukas is a chemical engineer and Adrian is good at making electrical devices such as smoke bombs, combined with your knowledge of chemistry, I think the three of you could come up with some useful things.” Jonathan and Jervis were surprised at this thought process, leading Jonathan to ask,

“I thought you didn’t want your assassins to help me improve my fear toxin?” Bruce looked like it pained him to suggest such a thing as he elaborated through gritted teeth,

“I don’t think of it as improving your toxin so much as modifying it for a good cause, especially as I’m hoping to have a version where, instead of terrifying people, it only unnerves them. People notice things when everything is going calmly, but once panic ensues, they start missing things; if we can invoke that level of paranoia and panic without them screaming, it could benefit us quite a bit. Now, Jervis, let’s go, as we really have very little time to waist.” Jervis and Jonathan both smirked as the Mad Hatter went somewhere quiet to help their baby Jabberwock gain control over his skills, and Jonathan said to himself,

“I like this side of you, Baby; you’re becoming a real nightmare.”


	4. Lessons to Learn, even for the Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We pick up where we left off, with Jervis trying to help Bruce learn hypnotism. We also make new friends and Bruce learns just what he is starting to mean to those of the Dark Zone.

“Now, to overcome this block, I think, first of all, you need to see just how strong your willpower is and, to do that, I want you to let me hypnotize you like I did last night,” Jervis explained as they entered an empty building that had a platform that led to a lower level, almost like an underground club of some kind, though it looked like the roof had caved in at one point, leaving beams, shingles, ductwork, and some pipes littering the lower level.

“What good will that do? You already know you can do it.”

“I don’t think you trust just how powerful your will is, and you think if you give in to this power we share, you will become something you are frightened of, a puppeteer, a murderer, but this is not necessarily true. I will take control of you and make you do some minor things, to show you I mean no threat, and that hypnosis doesn’t have to be lethal. Will you let me try?” Bruce looked at him for a long time before sighing and nodding. Jervis pulled out his pocket watch and held it up to his eye-line.

“Listen to the watch; hear how soothing it is, like listening to the heartbeat of a loved one. Look deep into my eyes, not above them, not around them, but deep into their center. That’s it, now you are completely relaxed, weightless, there is no Gotham, no Meta-humans to worry about, no James Gordon to pollute your mind and corrupt your soul. Now, sleep.” All tension was released from Bruce’s body and, testing his control, Jervis stroked Bruce’s cheek with the back of his hand. Bruce did not react.

“Are you asleep, Bruce?”

“Yes.”

“Good; there’s a hand-railing just behind you, overlooking the lower platform, go stand on it.” Bruce turned around, calmly walked to the railing, and jumped on it.

“Very good, now, I want you to do a combination of back-flips and front-flips on the bar and you shall have no fear at all.” Bruce turned sideways and proceeded to perform such acts on the bar, going back and forth as he did so.

“Marvellous, Bruce, you are quite the acrobat; now, I want you to balance on the bar using only your hands.” Bruce did as instructed, and Jervis was a little envious of how balanced Bruce was.

“Now, balance on one hand, for you weigh nothing at all, don’t you?” Bruce nodded as he again did as instructed, going so far as to balance only on his fingers. The Grayson’s Jerome had told him about would no doubt be jealous of Bruce’s skill.

“Most impressive, indeed; I doubt even the best acrobats in the world could copy your feats. Now, stand upright.” Bruce flipped back onto his feet.

“Look down, Bruce.” Bruce did as told and saw that there were several broken pipes and boards directly underneath him.

“You have not had an easy life, have you? Your parents were murdered in an alley right in front of your innocent eyes, and, tell me honestly, did you feel better or worse when you found out they were not just a random mugging statistic?”

“A little better, but also a lot worse; my father wanted to cure Gotham of its corruption, make it a better place for me, and they killed him and my mother for it,” Bruce responded, and Jervis was again reminded of the similarities between Bruce and Jonathan.

“But the pain didn’t stop there, did it? What all has happened to give you the eyes of someone thrice your age?”

“I’ve had a knife held to my throat, attacked by an iceman, had a madman try to sacrifice me only for him to die, come back and try to kill me _again,_ tormented by Strange and Nygma, found out I was cloned, kidnapped by said clone, brainwashed, stabbed my second father, had a second maniac come back to life to try and kill me with a canon, lost a good friend and his grandfather to a zealot, killed said zealot that was centuries old, went off the deep end, maniac number two threatened to kill me with a bomb on my neck, was used in a ritual to bring the zealot back to life, and I was betrayed by my best friend who tried to drive me insane and shot my female best friend in the spine.” Jervis was speechless for a good two minutes as he thought about all that had happened to _one_ person in _four years_ and he was fairly certain those were just the highlights of what had happened to him.

“You really get around; after all that, all that heartache and pain, wouldn’t you like to just sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Then take back control of your own fate and end it all. Take back the control from the likes of Valeska, Ra’s Al Ghul, Jim Gordon, and his sheep. Just take one little step and you will never have to worry about anything, ever again. One-step and you can be with your parents again, don’t you want that?” Bruce started to raise his leg, the idea of no more worries and being with his parents _so_ tempting. But as he did, the thought of Alfred, Lucius, Jim, Lee, and Harvey all came to the forefront of his mind; they had all taken it upon themselves to try and help him, not necessarily taking the place of his parents, more like guides, could he take their kindness and throw it back in their faces? What about Selina? She had Tabitha and Barbara, but didn’t she _want_ him around? She was paralyzed because of him, could he leave her until he exhausted every possible area he could to make her well again? Then, thoughts of Carrie, Jason, Zach, and Tommy came to the foreground; they _needed_ him to help them stay safe and learn control, if he took himself off the playing field, would Scarecrow still protect them?

‘ _Let go of your worries._ ’

‘ _Free yourself of your responsibilities._ ’

‘ _No one would blame you._ ’ Blame him? No. Miss him and bring him back from the dead only to kill him again because they were so pissed off at him? Jim, Alfred, Lee, and Selina were all at the top of _that_ list, and there were more than a couple more names that followed. He had found his calling when he wanted to protect Gotham from Penguin and his damn licenses, even though Alfred had warned him to simply focus on preparing for Ra’s return. He _had_ to protect Gotham, not just for people like Lucius and Harvey, good men _trying_ to fix the problems of the city. Nor kids like Tommy or Carrie, who got dealt a bad hand early in life but were trying to make the best of it and become more than what they were born into. But for those like him and Jonathan; to make sure that never again would a twelve-year-old lose his parents in an alley at night, or someone who needed help was instead just over-medicated, zapped, and drowned.

‘ _Just let go of everything._ ’ His calling was to fix these problems, to deal with Gotham’s seedy underbelly so that no one else had to, and no one else had to become, what he became.

“NO!” Bruce broke free from Jervis’ spell and was quickly pulled back into Jervis’ arms, away from the railing, and the force knocked both men to the ground.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! You almost made me commit suicide when you swore you wouldn’t try and hurt me!”

“Don’t you see? You broke free! Broke free from my spell before you fell because you _are_ stronger! Your will dominates others when you want it to! And _that_ is the mentality needed for you to master hypnosis!” Bruce let out a low rumble in his throat as he leaned down and growled,

“Never. Do. That. Again. Understood?” As he ground out each word, he put more and more pressure on Jervis’ trachea, until all Jervis could do, was nod. As Bruce stood up, he made sure to knee Jervis in the stomach.

“Let’s get to work.” And so they did; every night they would work on both Bruce’s hypnotism and Jervis’ stealth. Neither was going too well, culminating on the third night when Bruce, frustrated, exclaimed,

“We are all going to die! You are about as stealthy as a bull elephant in a china shop, and, whilst I’ve been able to put someone under, the minute they look away from me, the spell is broken!” Jonathan was with them this time and found it all rather funny.

“There must be something we are missing, something we are not thinking of, that is causing you to have trouble with this ability.” Jervis sighed as Lance came in and relieved his sister of ‘Hypno-training' as they had taken to calling it. They were about to discuss it further when Bruce froze, then rushed out of the building they had designated for their training. The other three all rushed out and saw Bruce jump into the air to catch Zach before he fell from the top of a building.

“Wow, nice catch!” Frankie and Tommy both exclaimed as Bruce righted himself and set Zach on the ground.

“Just what do you think you were doing?”

“I was trying to replicate that little trick I used the other night where I used the winds to levitate for a few minutes before lowering myself to the ground; it wasn’t going so well.”

“So you decided to throw yourself from a building twenty feet up?”

“Well, it was adrenaline-fueled last time so I thought-”

“You thought if you replicated the adrenal response, you would be able to replicate the technique? Zach, that is precisely why we practice in safe conditions; so we don’t have to depend on fear or anger to bring these powers out, but do it at the drop of a hat. You weren’t only afraid of heights that night, you were scared for Tommy as well, so you _wanted_ it to work, and it worked the way you wanted it to. We learn to not only control our abilities but to master them so that they respond to our willpower, not our fear and anger. If you want to try replicating that technique, go slowly; try jumping off a box say about a foot off the ground, and once you have that mastered, go higher. Don’t forget, you had almost mastered the air-purifying technique when you came here because you _needed_ that ability to properly survive back in your apartment. Use that mentality for your levitation, air walking, whatever you want to call it, think about what you want, visualize it, and make it happen when _you_ want it to happen, not your fear.” Zach nodded as he and Tommy went to find a box high enough. As Bruce turned around, he mumbled,

“I wonder if vampires can get grey hairs?” He stopped moving at the sight of Jervis and Jonathan behind him, giving him a peculiar look.

“What?”

“Ever think of following your own advice, baby?” Bruce looked confused for a moment before he understood what Jonathan was talking about.

“Don’t you think I’ve been _trying_ to do just that?” Bruce started walking back to their training room when he continued with,

“I clear my mind, I visualize what I want to do, and then… nothing.”

“Maybe clearing your mind is not what is needed in this instance,” Jervis suggested, causing Bruce to turn around and look at him in confusion as he continued walking backwards.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What you said back there; the ‘air-walking’ technique didn’t work because Zach was scared of heights, but because Tommy was in danger and Zach _needed_ it to work then and there. Maybe what will help you focus, is not clearing your mind, but focusing on the reason why you need to get this right; your four little nightmares.” Bruce, seeing nothing to lose as they settled into the building and Lance stood at the ready, decided to give it a try. He stood in front of Lance with his eyes closed, and thought of how important it was for him to learn hypnosis, not just for the meat they, and Lee, would get for the ammo, or the ammo Jim desperately needed, but the maps that would allow him to help so many in Gotham. When he opened his eyes to try again, Jervis and Jonathan were surprised when the eyes were not yellow or red but were instead a sort of violet color.

“Lance, I was wondering if you could do something for me?” The two villains watched as Lance’s body seemed to lose any resistance, eyes become glazed, and he became relaxed.

“What do you wish of me?” Bruce glanced at Jervis as if asking what he should do, only for Jervis to make a spinning motion with his hand; Bruce had managed this step before, only for the subject to break free the moment Bruce looked away. Bruce drew in an unnecessary breath and said,

“Turn around three times.” Lance did as he was told, and Jonathan and Jervis held their breaths as Lance turned the third time, only to retain the glazed eyes. Bruce again glanced at the two, as though not believing what he was seeing. He cleared his throat and said,

“You see the hand-railing next to us?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I want you to go stand on it, and walk back and forth on it like a tightrope.” Lance walked over to the railing Bruce himself had stood upon only a few nights ago, and climbed up. He then proceeded to walk across it, truly as if he were a circus performer.

“Could he have done that before?” Bruce asked Jonathan who replied,

“Not a chance, Sandra once told Charlie that Lance has absolutely no sense of balance; he can’t ride a bike unless it’s got three wheels.” Bruce allowed a small smile at this before turning to Jervis and asking,

“Is there anything else I should try or do you think I’ve got it?” Jervis looked thoughtful, trying to figure it out himself when he said,

“You have a starting point at least, little Jabberwock, and we will continue to work on it until you can do this again, and again, and again, until it comes to you as easily as bre- um, thinking up plans. For now, you should awaken him.”

“How?”

“Try a countdown mixed with a sharp sound, like a snap or a clap.” Bruce nodded before turning back to Lance who, thankfully, once he reached the end of the bar, merely turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Bruce thought of how he had awoken from his trance, and said,

“Face me, Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter, then jump down so you are level with us. Good now, I am going to count down from three, and then I will clap my hands; when I do, you will awaken. Three, two, one *clap*.” Lance started rapidly blinking as he came out of his trance, wondering why there was dust on his hands. Before he could ask, Ellie and Jason came running in.

“Scarecrow, Bats, Hatter, we _finally_ found the maps of the sewer lines!” Ellie proclaimed as she held up said maps before giving them to her leader. They had had to go to three libraries before they found them, and she was glad Jason had been with her as it was his ‘I can see in the dark’ eyes that had found them, and his enhanced sense of smell that kept them out of danger.

“Good, let’s take a look at them and see if we can fig-”

“Hey, Bats! I think Demona hit her head or something; she keeps talking about something following her, but she’s like forty feet in the air!” Tommy said as he came in holding one of the walkie-talkies; they had strengthened the signal last night, and tonight they had been testing it to see how well they had strengthened it.

“Tommy, give me the walkie; Demona told me last night she thought someone was following her but all she saw was a shadow.” Tommy was quick to do as his leader instructed, and Jason suddenly looked worried.

“Demona, this is Bats, Shriek has already given me the 411, is this the same thing you saw last night? Over.”

“Bats, I’m sure it’s the same thing, but it’s bigger than I thought; either I only caught a glimpse of a sliver of it, or it’s closer than it was last night. Over.” Even over the walkie, those around Bruce could hear the frisson of fear that crept into her voice.

“Demona, how far away from the compound are you? Over.”

“I’d say ten minutes, maximum, and I know it’s following me; I’ve double-backed twice and it’s followed me both times. Over.” Bruce took the walkie away from his mouth for a moment to curse,

“Damn, that doesn’t give us a lot of time to come up with a plan unless… Scarecrow, do you still have the net from that night? The one you used to capture Demona?” Jonathan was a bit surprised at being asked such a question, but nodded and sent Julian to get it.

“Which building has the most obstacles we can hide behind? Crates, smokestacks, anything like that?”

“The barracks.”

“Good, gather some of your stronger people and get them and your net on that roof. Michael! You, Sandra, and Jerry get up there too, be ready to lend assistance if necessary!” Before Bruce could continue, Demona broke through again,

“Bats! It’s getting closer, and whatever it is, it is the size of a man and has huge wings!”

“Demona, stay calm. I want you to head towards the barracks building, then act as though you have a cramp in your wing, and then power-dive. If your assumptions are right and it’s been following you, it will probably dive after you to either eat you or save you. At the very last possible moment, I want you to pull out of the dive; you’ve been an avid flyer for months now and if you haven’t seen this thing until now, I doubt it’s been flying as long as you, so it won’t be able to pull up at a moments notice as you can. When it gets close enough to the ground, we will pin it down and see just what has been following you these last couple of nights. Over.” You could almost hear the calm sweep over Demona as her leader laid out his plan and she responded in a much more confident voice,

“Roger that, over and out.” Bruce tucked the walkie away as he, Tommy, Jason, Zach (who had just arrived), and Jervis all quickly ascended to the roof of the barracks.

“I don’t get it though, what could be that high up, _and_ that big? I’ll grant you, the largest species of flying bird in the world, the wandering albatross, is pretty large, the largest on record being almost five feet in length and has a wingspan of twelve, but they are friendly birds, and Carrie would not be frightened of that.” Zach explained as he had a good knowledge of birds thanks to his father, the only thing they ever agreed on.

“You weren’t here earlier Zach, whatever it is, it’s intelligent; she double-backed twice to get a look at it, but it double-backed too to try and stay out of sight. I don’t think even a crow would think to do that, and we all remember your lesson on the crow from the other night.” Jason shot back as they joined Scarecrow’s people.

“Whatever it is, it’s either an avian creature that has somehow mutated to extreme size, or it’s another Meta; this being Gotham it could legitimately be either one and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised,” Bruce responded as he motioned for everyone to get down low. He pulled out the night-vision goggles he had Lucius make up for Tommy and put them on.

“What do you need those for? You can already see in the dark.” Jervis asked as Jonathan joined them.

“True, but these have a magnifying feature that beat my eyesight, and I want to make sure we are ready for Demona; I don’t like others scaring my teammates,” Bruce growled the last part and they all hunkered down as they waited. It wasn’t a long wait as Bruce soon called out,

“Demona has pulled her fake-out and she’s falling fa- I see it! It’s only a dark blur right now, but no wonder she was concerned, it’s bigger than she is, with an even bigger wingspan, and it’s falling fast, it’s almost on top of her already! Get ready with the net, it looks powerful, maybe too powerful for the net! I wish we had some way of binding its wings before it hit the ground but-”

“Apologies Master for interrupting, but I may have something that will help,” Sandra explained as she pulled out a pair of bolas.

“That will work, now get ready.” Bruce handed her the night-vision goggles, knowing she would see the perfect chance to use them when it was time. They soon saw Demona, and Bruce felt ice grip his dead heart as he saw her falling, hoping it was all an act and any moment now she would pull up. She kept getting closer and closer, and Bruce was about to jump up and tell her to pull up, when Jonathan put a hand on his shoulder, exactly when she threw her wings open and used them as a sort of parachute. As she flew back behind her pursuer, Sandra let loose her bolas, which promptly wound around the creature’s body, sending it crashing to their roof, where Scarecrow and his men quickly threw the net over it. As they struggled to keep it down, Demona landed near Jason and Bruce, which lead to a strange voice calling out,

“Get out of here, Night Angel!” This confused them as Tommy asked,

“Night Angel? Who is he talking to?”

“Either he has a comrade, or he’s talking to Demona.” Jason speculated as he looked at his sister’s stalker. As he struggled, someone lit one of the small kerosene lamps that Bruce and Adrian had shown them the night before how to make. When they got a good look at him, they saw his ‘skin’ was a dark brown, almost black, he was covered in fur, his ears were pointed and almost the size of hubcaps, his hands were large, each finger tipped with a claw, and long strips of flesh, almost like webbing on a marine animal, but at the same time not, sprouted from his arms, making up his wings. It was a small wonder he had almost overtaken Carrie when power bombing; her wings were on her back and would still offer slight resistance as she dropped, but this creature merely wrapped his wings around his body and fell straight down.

“It’s a male Demona.” Tommy spouted as they managed to haul him upwards, and Scarecrow kept him pinned by way of his scythe. As his face came into the light, they saw his jaw was elongated, with sharp fangs seen as he panted, trying to catch his breath, and his eyes appeared blood red.

“I don’t think so, Tommy, though there are different variations of Gargoyles around the world, one thing supernatural scholars agree on is that they have skin, not fur.” Zach pointed out as he hid behind Tetch.

“Who are you?” Bruce asked the winged creature as Scarecrow made sure the tip of his scythe was touching its chin.

“My name is Kirk, Kirk Langstrom, and I… Mr. Wayne?” Bruce was surprised at this as most people seemed to have forgotten what he looked like.

“Yes, do I… know you?”

“Only superficially; I got into Gotham University early because you liked my thesis on helping cure the world’s disabilities through means of the animal kingdom.” Bruce thought back and realized he had read that thesis back during his downward spiral and had found it interesting, even if he couldn’t recall the name, though he remembered a big part of it had to do with the scholarship. The dean had heavily hinted to him to reject Kirk’s thesis and accept the thesis of the daughter of one of his wife’s friends, though when he read hers, he found it badly written all around, it was the dean himself who made him reject it; the day before, he had said if Thomas Wayne was alive, he would have been ashamed of his son.

“Yes, I remember it, as I recall, though you listed how the different abilities of animals could be beneficial to mankind, you were exceptionally keen on how the senses of Chiroptera would be beneficial to humans.”

“Chiroptera? What does that word mean?” Tommy asked Jason, who just shrugged, leading Bruce to explain,

“Chiroptera is the Latin name for bats.” Bruce turned for a moment, then did a double-take as almost everyone was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

“How did _you_ manage to get _him_ into Gotham University?”

“Because the Wayne’s have had a seat on GU for over seventy-five years when it was first built.” He was pretty certain he could feel Scarecrow roll his eyes at this but paid attention when Jason asked,

“Why were you stalking my sister?” Kirk adjusted his position and responded,

“Well, believe it or not, but the whole wing and fur thing are relatively new; when the order came for Gotham’s evacuation, I was in the lab at GU, working on making my thesis a reality, and before I left, I set free all the animals we had been using in our experiments. The way everyone was rushing to get out, I knew there was no time to properly transport them as well, so I wanted to give them at least a chance to survive. I then packed up my notes, my more valuable nicknacks, and an untested serum I had recently developed. From there, I made for the nearest bridge out of Gotham but I was not fast enough, and the bridge blew when I was halfway across it; I remember the rumbling, then suddenly we started dropping, and I became weightless in the free fall.

When I hit the water, gravity came crashing back as well, and I hit my head on the wheel, hard, as well as breaking the vial with the serum, though I thought only superficially of it at the time. Well, it didn’t take long before my little VW started filling with water, but my seat-belt was jammed, and I couldn’t get out. The water was almost at neck level when I suddenly got an idea that would either save me or help me die quicker; I held my breath, then I pulled the handle that allowed me to recline the seat, giving me enough leeway to wiggle out. What I didn’t realize was that the serum mixed with the water I was holding my breath in, and the water had been licking at my open head wound even before my little dip. I was finally able to wiggle free, get the door open, and then made my way to the surface; why I didn’t swim towards Star City, only God knows, but I instead swam back to Gotham and passed out on the shore. When I came to, it was to the bridges gone, Gotham burning, and people screaming; I had nowhere else to go, so I started making my way back to Gotham University when I began to feel unwell. My head and arms were killing me, but considering what I had just gone through, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then I began to feel sick to my stomach, more than a little nauseous, and while I was waiting for it to pass, some punks attacked me, wanting to see if I had anything of value on me. As they were waling on me, my body began to hurt in different ways, then I felt it as my body began its long and very painful metamorphosis. My serum hadn’t cured anything, it turned me into this monster, this… Man-Bat.”

“This is all very interesting, if a trifle long, but it doesn’t explain why you were stalking my sister,” Jason growled out; sure, he felt sorry Kirk had gone through that, alone no less, but he had terrified his sister.

“Jason!” Bruce scolded the young male, but Kirk replied,

“No, he is right and I am sorry for scaring you Night An- uh, Demona, but you see, the first week after my transformation, I was so scared to leave the lab, but eventually I did, and I honestly did my best not to be seen by normal people, but they would often catch a glimpse of me and start screaming or throwing things. Then, one night, as I was foraging, I noticed a large shadow pass over the moon, and when I looked up, it was you. I know it was foolish to think but the first thought that occurred to me was, that I wasn’t alone! There was someone else like me! I realized I could never meet you on the ground, so I taught myself how to fly, hoping to meet you. Once I learned how to fly after many, many, _many_ , bruises, I realized I had no basis to talk to you, I mean, what was I supposed to do? Fly up to you and say ‘Hi, I’m a bat creature too! Want to stay at Gotham University with me where we won’t be bothered by people?’ Yeah, that would go over like a lead balloon, but I was desperate, so these last couple of nights, I’ve been building up my courage and decided that tonight I was at least going to talk to you, only for… this… to happen.” Kirk motioned to the net keeping him pinned down, bolas wrapped around his wings, as well as the scythe still at his chin.

“You risked your safety, perhaps even your life, as you knew exactly _nothing_ about me because you were… lonely?” Carrie asked as she looked at the seemingly terrifying but actually a huge dork, bat, who shrugged helplessly at the question.

“Loneliness can cause us to make decisions we normally would never even dream of, let alone act on; I sought out the Scarecrow because I was lonely and he entered a partnership with your leader because he was equally lonely, and I think your leader accepted because he too was lonely. Is it really so strange that one would seek out companionship with the only other being that looks anything like oneself?” Jervis asked Carrie as Bruce untied the bat.

“I was not lonely!” Scarecrow and Bruce shouted at the same time, causing some of the braver ones to chuckle.

“Whatever you guys say, now, what are we going to do with Man-Bat?” Tommy asked, causing Bruce to sigh and respond,

“Nothing, Tommy; he scarred your cousin, yes, but he meant no harm. He will go back to Gotham University, and continue how he has these last three months.”

“But Bats he’s -”

“He qualifies as a Meta-Human, yes, but he has a grasp on his powers, and does not need our help to control them. Therefore, he does not need to stay here and learn, and I keep telling you that Scarecrow and I are partners but this is first and foremost, his territory, it needs to be discussed with him.”

“Uh, pardon me, Mr. Wayne, but was… um, the little boy referring to you when he said ‘Bats’?” Kirk asked, a little confused, as Tommy had indeed been looking at Mr. Wayne when he used the moniker.

“Yes, he was; long story short, I was turned into a vampire before the bridges blew, and I now have seven assassins on-call, as well as, apparently, a knack for finding Meta-Humans, especially when I’m _not_ looking for them.” Kirk looked at him in almost awe, Demona was most like him in appearance, but it seemed he might have something in common with another person.

“Ironic, you are a bat on the inside, and I am a bat on the outside. Do you strictly require blood as well or can you eat human food as well? Do you require human blood or will animal blood suffice?” Kirk proved to still be a scientist as he asked his questions even as he was being untied by Jason.

“I am on a diet of strictly blood, I’m not sure what would happen if I ate human food, but my diet allows another who does need actual food, to get it so I will experiment later when Gotham has rejoined the mainland. Also, for the first two weeks of my new dietary needs, I tried subsisting solely on animal blood, mostly rats, as there are plenty of those in Gotham, but I found myself very weak and very sick. That was the first time I found out about my assassins; I awoke to the feeling of one of them with their bleeding arm in my mouth, and though I meant to push the arm away, I instead drew it closer.” Kirk nodded as though this didn’t surprise him.

“Most interesting, I have survived mostly on animal blood, though I prefer human aesthetically; it does not leave me as weak or sick as you were describing, I simply find human blood to be more nutrient-rich. Of course, I can hardly drink as much as I would need to fully function; given the calories I burn, especially since I started flying, I would need to ingest at least two full humans a night, so I have developed a sort of synthetic plasma to ease my hunger. Would you care to try it? I put them in special vials that are very hard to break; I pinched them from my father’s company after the separation.” Kirk asked as he pulled a vial out of a previously unseen fanny pack.

“Your father’s company? Of course, I thought I recognized the name Langstrom; Abraham Langstrom is the head of Patriarch Biopharmaceuticals, one of Wayne Enterprises’ top competitors in the pharmaceuticals department.” Bruce said as he took the vial, opened it, took a sip, only to start violently coughing, spitting out what he consumed, and was even a little sick as Jervis started pounding on his back, only to switch up his movements to gentle rubbing as he was sick. Demona quickly tackled Kirk to the ground and managed to get his arms behind his back as Scarecrow again brought his scythe over, though he was now joined by Sandra’s katana.

“What did you do to him?! Did you poison him?!”

“Ugh, no, I swear! I take that serum every night, it’s my main source of nutrition and I didn’t even know there was another blood drinker in Gotham before tonight! I only brought the extra vial in case _you_ drank blood; it was meant to be a token of friendship, or at least a peace offering!”

“Too bad we can’t confirm or deny that; Tetch said loneliness can lead us to impulsive decisions, it can also lead to insanity. It is possible your untested serum, combined with your loneliness, warped your mind to the point that when you saw someone who shared your appearance, you needed Demona as a companion. You needed her so much, that you followed her before, saw her interact with the Master and maybe you -” Sandra was cut off during her theories when Kirk shouted

“Give me the vial! I can prove it’s not poison and I’m not some creep!” Sandra appeared to be getting ready to kill Kirk when a voice cut through,

“Sandra, put your blade away, Jonathan, lower your scythe, and Carrie let Kirk up. Now.” There was something in that little three-lettered word, some kind of power behind it, which compelled all three to do as they were told, and Jonathan (he realized with a jolt that, despite them being together for approximately five days, this was the first time Bruce had called him by his birth name; it was always Scarecrow or Crane before this) turned to look at Bruce. There were little traces of drying blood around his mouth, he looked as pale as Jonathan did, and the fact that Jervis was helping him stand upright, with Jason, Zach, Tommy, Michael, and Lance all hovering protectively near-by, seemed to somehow make him look smaller than he should have been. So this was the face of a hungry and weak vampire… Jonathan did not like it at all.

“I honestly believe he did not intend to poison me; a huge difference between what we eat depends on the different components of blood. Kirk, would I be right in saying that the mixture you gave me is more plasma than red and white blood cells?”

“Well, yes; my body still produces the leukocytes and other things like ions and nutrients, but the plasma ratio is severely off in my body, burned through even faster when flying, hence my plasma formula.”

“Which, opposed to red and white blood cells, is where the water and proteins of the blood are produced and carried throughout the body.” Kirk smacked himself with his hand, narrowly avoiding taking out Lukas, who just appeared out of nowhere, causing Kirk to jump.

“Uh, Bats, my readings are almost at the college level thanks to the League, but biology is something of a weak point for me; just what are your talking about?” Jason asked, having lost the conversation somewhere around plasma and red blood cells being different components of blood.

“Allow me to try and explain; you see, blood is the term we use to simplify the chemical composition that runs through our bodies, delivering oxygen and other vital nutrients to different parts of our bodies.” Kirk tried to explain, only for Tommy to reply,

“Swing and a miss; try it in English, poindexter.” Jonathan was surprised at the tone as Tommy honestly seemed like someone who was always trying to make others like him, not to mention he was especially friendly to other Meta’s, and had been somewhat warm to Kirk until… of course, Tommy was almost as protective of Bruce as Bruce was protective of Tommy and the idea of someone attacking him, even inadvertently, seemed to cool the boy’s enthusiasm over a new Meta.

“It’s simple, Tommy, blood is made up of three components; plasma makes up about 55%, red blood cells make up 41%, and the white blood cells that keep us healthy make up the last 4%, right, Lukas?” Carrie explained to her younger cousin, feeling a little subdued since Bruce told her to stand down; she couldn’t explain it but when he had spoken at that moment, it felt like he was laying down the law, and you could either follow it or leave.

“Indeed Miss. Carrie, you see, whilst Mr. Langstrom does feed on blood, like the master, they feed on different parts of it; Mr. Langstrom feeds on the protein and perhaps the water found in plasma, meanwhile, the Master feeds more on the nutrients and other compounds found in the red and white blood cells. The sudden introduction of almost pure protein and water, without the additional nutrients to balance it, caused a violent reaction in the master, almost giving him the appearance of being poisoned.” Lukas’ field of expertise may have laid strongly in chemistry, but he knew a lot about biology as well, proudly making him the one the Master came to when he had a scientific question. Carrie looked anywhere but at Kirk, as she mumbled an apology, Bruce was about to scold her into making a real apology, when Kirk replied,

“It’s alright, no one’s to blame really; you and I had no way of knowing what would happen when you tried my substitute, you know the old saying, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. And you, Demona, were only reacting to a threat since you believed I had poisoned your boyfriend and-”

“BOYFRIEND?!”

“Oh yuck!” Kirk looked astonished at the varying levels of disgust across the multiple faces that he could see, and Carrie replied,

“He’s not my boyfriend, he’s my leader who’s been like a father to myself, my brother, and our cousin since he saved us from some scumbags, a lot more than my sperm donor or the incubator ever were!” Kirk hid his face in his hands at his embarrassment, which grew when Bruce pointed out,

“She’s also only fourteen, her ability makes her taller than she was previously, for whatever reason. I’ll grant you, three years of age difference is hardly a boundary of any kind, but one, I have no romantic feelings towards Carrie whatsoever, and two, I am not into statutory rape.” Kirk just want the earth to open up and eat him at this point but said,

“After scaring Carrie, practically poisoning you, and making an ass of myself, is there _anything_ I can do to atone for this cock-up, Mr. Wayne?” Bruce, who dearly wanted to sit down, eat, and _rest_ , at the moment, turned to Jonathan, and asked,

“What do you think, Crane?”

“Firstly, you called me Jonathan earlier, I give you and Jervis exclusive permission to call me that. Secondly, I think Langstrom could help in surveillance if you think he’s trustworthy.”

“He’s trustworthy; he hasn’t told any lies since he landed. Carrie, would you feel comfortable with Kirk taking over some of your surveillance work? Because, no offence as I’m the one who told you to do this, but it has been three days since you’ve done any training or readings. If you and Kirk shared the surveillance job, by either each taking a night or, ideally, splitting the nights in half, I think it would be beneficial.” Bruce was almost certain he saw something that suspiciously looked like hurt flash in Carrie’s eyes before she shrugged. Jason then spoke up,

“OK then, I will go over the specifics with Kirk and tell him what he needs to do and why we are risking our lives in this manner. Boss, you know I seldom order you about, but, in this instance… I am ordering you to get a real meal to replace the nutrients you lost when you were sick; regular people regain lost nutrients with sleep but everyone and their maiden aunt know you won’t sleep until the sun rises. So, I think you should ask the League members to give you some blood to help you regain your strength.” Poor Jason looked terrified at the idea of ordering his leader about, but he refused to let Bruce go on for another five hours weak and on an empty stomach.

“Alright, Mich-”

“I would like to volunteer as well,” Lance spoke up, surprising everyone as none of Scarecrow’s people had even seen Bruce feed, but Lance was the first to admit he was curious.

“Uh, thanks, but I feed either from the League or those I… find.” Bruce looked almost ashamed at admitting to this last part, making Lance speak up again.

“Yeah, but those last ones are unwilling, and the League can only give you blood so many times a week. Even when you and Scarecrow go out the night you’ll steal from Penguin, you’ll only take three or four of us with you, that leaves a large number of us here. If you take a couple of mouthfuls from Alpha, the ones who will be going to sleep when you wake up, it just means they’ll sleep better.”

“A bit of a ham-fisted attempt at manipulation, Master, but he’s not entirely wrong; having a third option for your feeding would hardly be remiss.” Michael pointed out, and Bruce couldn’t really argue with that point but wasn’t wholly convinced.

“Why do you want to volunteer in the first place?” Lance shrugged before answering,

“I guess I’m just largely curious, and I know a few others are as well, we’ve talked about it these last couple of nights, and, well the League doesn’t scream when you bite them, so it mustn't be too painful. All we’re asking is that you let those of us who are willing, to give you what you need; you, Scarecrow, and the others all do a lot to keep us safe, and we can repay them by being loyal to Scarecrow and looking after the kids when you can’t, but we want to repay you properly too.” Bruce was surprised at the honesty he heard coming from Lance and saw that Julian appeared interested too.

“To clear up a slight misconception, the League has incredibly high pain tolerance levels, and the perps I bite into usually scream,”

“Perps? What are you, a cop?” Kirk asked in bemusement as Jason pulled him aside, confident his leader would listen to his advice now.

“Master, not to be contrary but a large part is intent on your part; while there is some pain when you first bite down, you do not want us to feel any pain as we are willing donors, the perps you feed from on the streets are not willing and you do not feel a need to be as cautious,” Bruce admitted he never thought about his intentions in the matter, but, even when they were pains in the ass, he never wanted to hurt anyone who was doing him a kindness, the backlash of what he had done to Alfred and Selina would forevermore be imprinted on his conscience. He looked at Lance and Julian, did a little figuring, and replied,

“Alright; I will take a half-pint from each of you as that shouldn’t leave you feeling too woozy afterwards, but if you even _think_ you feel dizzy, go lie down at once, understood?” Both teenagers nodded before Julian asked,

“How many should I grab? A lot are curious and willing to help you; I mean, just say the word and probably six would be willing to be donors, and that’s only from the group that’s just finished phys ed and about to start their readings.” _That_ was news to Bruce, as well as being a shocker that so many would offer up their blood on a moment’s notice, a feeling shared by Jervis and Jonathan judging by their faces. But Bruce had only told the League to train them, he didn’t think they would also be teaching them like they were the kids.

“Uh, just the two of you will be fine; I will also take a half pint from both Adrian and Lukas as they are not on training detail tonight, thus giving me a full two pints, that should be enough. I think Jason is right that I need to abstain from physical training, so Michael, I want you and I to go over the numbers and make sure everything is set for the night of the full moon.” Michael bowed as he said,

“As you wish, Master.” Michael then went to prepare for the discussion. Bruce then turned to Lukas and asked,

“How are the ‘panic bombs’ coming along?” Lukas followed Michael’s example as he bowed to his master.

“We are still perfecting the mechanism as well as weakening the serum so it merely induces panic as opposed to full-blown hysteria as seen in the past, Master, but I am confident we shall have it ready in time for our raid.” Bruce nodded as they all started making their way down.

“Good, Sandra, I want you and Erik to get back to training the others, and take a good look at them; you two are the best at sneaking around so I want you to give your opinions to Jonathan about who should go with us on the raid. The decision is ultimately yours Jonathan, but I figure an informed opinion would hardly be remiss. Tommy, before you and Zach get back to your own training, I want you to set up a stealth course for Jervis. Tommy, remember the set-up we had back at our old place, with the string and the bells? Get Tatsu to help you set it up as otherwise you will set it up at our level and he will get all tangled up. Carrie, once Jason is done with Kirk, head back up into the air with him and show him the routes so he knows how best to hide.” Everyone went to do as told, with Jonathan telling Tommy and Zach to set up Jervis’ course in his lab so he could keep an eye on him in case he did get all tangled up.

“What about me, baby?” Bruce looked surprised at being asked this and replied,

“If I’m being bossy again, I apologize-”

“No, it’s not that; everyone you gave orders to is under your jurisdiction, as we know the League won’t listen to me without running it by you first, and you merely told Tommy and Zach to set up the course, you didn’t order Jervis to do it. It’s just you have jobs for everyone else, and I wondered if you have anything planned for me?”

“Not really, except maybe see if you can figure out how to weaken the fear gas into the panic gas we were talking about; it’s your formula so if anyone can figure out how to do it, you can, and Adrian and Lukas will do whatever they can to help you. It would also be a good idea to come up with a serum that would make those like Jervis and Tommy immune to your fear toxin, even if only for a few hours, as we don’t want them to be under the influence by accident.” Bruce then motioned Julian and Lance to follow him; he didn’t care how many of them were curious, he wasn’t feeding where everyone could see them.

“Our little Jabberwock seems to be growing as a leader and a partner.”

“And you don’t mind him bossing you around?”

“I would hesitate to call it ‘bossing me around’, as he is doing this for all our benefits since I think he wants me to come along the night of the raid, and I need to improve my stealth before that can happen. Though I am happy to see while he grows in his own areas, you are growing in yours; you looked ready to behead the mock-turtle.”

“Mock-turtle? Am I right in supposing you mean Langstrom? What kind of message does it say to my followers when my own partner gets poisoned right in front of me? In our territory, no less?”

“Of course he’s the mock-turtle; he may look like a Jabberwocky, but he’s just an imitator, unlike ours. Though I still fail to understand why you continue to deny you like him, even as a friend, when you let him call you by your former name, a privilege formerly reserved exclusively for myself and Jerome.”

“Jervis, keep wondering out loud and when you get all tangled up tonight, which I can fully see you doing, I may only have enough time to have a little _fun_ with you before I’ll have to leave you… _hanging_ , since Bruce wants that panic formula and all.” Jonathon then sauntered off to his lab with Jervis following behind, his own smirk trying to erupt at his March Hare’s teasing. The two went about their respective jobs until Jervis rang one of those stupid bells three times in a row in under five minutes and Tatsu called a halt to it, telling Jervis to take five, though Jervis noticed she seemed a bit more on edge than normal. When asked about it, she looked around as though she feared other members of the League were around to hear what she had to say.

“Please try to understand, I’m younger than the others and wasn’t with the League as long as, say, Michael or Sandra, when the former Master died the first time, and though I admired the idea of a female leader of the League, the Master told us it was destiny that Bruce Wayne takes over, so Sandra and I waited until he was ready. And, if I’m being honest, I have enjoyed Bruce being our new master; he just has this aura about him that lets you know he’s a leader, but he listens to us when we offer advice. However, I can’t help but be… _concerned_ about how much he’s been doing since Gotham became No Man’s Land; looking after the young one’s, filching what you commandeered from Gordon, planning a raid on Penguin to steal bullets for Miss Kean who in turn will give food to yourselves and Doctor Thompkins, and planning a large ritual where he will then run around Star City, where he will hopefully get enough supplies to last the city until the next full moon, where the whole thing will just start all over again. He’s strong, but he’s also young, and I fear that his newfound strength has led him to believe that he can handle all of this stress and suffer no repercussions; others, when as sick as he was when he ingested Langstrom’s serum, would be lying down right now, taking it easy until they were back to full strength. But, though he is not engaged in our nightly exercises, he is still not taking it easy, though no one would fault him if he took even a half-hour to regain his strength.”

“Is it possible for vampires to burn out?” Jonathan asked her as he put his experiment down for the moment.

“No one knows; the last powerful family of vampires that walked amongst humans without fear died out over three-hundred-years-ago and any remaining vampires that still walk the Earth do so in hiding. We really have no basis to figure out how things will go with the Master and what his limits are, so we’ve been taking things as they come, but I do wish he would rest right now and just stop _thinking_ , but I am in no position to force the issue, and the others would see it as being subversive to try and make the Master do anything he has not thought of doing himself.”

“We’ll go back to the earlier vampires comment later, but if you are really worried about Bruce, while it might not be _your_ place to tell Bruce to take a real break, as his partner, it is _my_ place.” Jonathan pointed out, as even he thought Bruce could benefit from taking it easy, even for a half-hour.

“Even I can tell the baby Jabberwocky will not go down easily or peacefully, and would even stoop to pretending to agree, only to find some way of continuing his earlier work; from the moment he rises, till the sun rises, he is always moving, thinking, planning, only stopping to feed, and that takes only a few moments.” Jervis pointed out and Jonathan knew he was right.

“Too bad we can’t trick him into taking some kind of drug like CBD to help him relax.” Tatsu looked at Jonathan for a moment before asking,

“Do you actually have anything like that on hand?”

“Well, it’s not CBD exactly, but it’s very similar, relaxes a person so much that some fall asleep after only a few moments; Jerome had me develop it back in Arkham, and I’ve been trying to modify it to relax a person before sending them into an extreme panic.” Jervis looked at Jonathan in confusion before asking,

“Why did Jerome have you make something like that?” Jonathan shuffled his feet for a moment before responding,

“This was before you were transferred to our wing and I had very bad nights, and once, the night terrors got so bad I didn’t get any sleep for six days. Jerome said he needed my talent with chemistry, and so said if I could make a drug that could calm me enough so I could sleep, he would steal back my mask and threaten the orderlies to leave it alone. Because of my… condition, it doesn’t always send me to dreamland, but it does calm me a great deal; Jerome found that out when, a week before you were transferred, I had a particularly bad episode, the orderlies threatened to take my mask away and send me to electro-shock, when Jerome found my stuff, forced me to take a small dose, which then relaxed me enough that the orderlies left us alone. One of the newer orderlies tried to take them away, but Jerome stabbed them with a pencil, prompting them to take Jerome away but I was left alone.” Jervis nodded and then asked,

“If it calms you enough to let you sleep, why don’t you take it more often?”

“Like most drugs, if you take it too often, your body becomes immune to it, and I fear if I upped the dose, it would actually stop my heart, and I still have far too many people to terrorize on this Earth before I move on to my next nightmare.” Before Jervis could respond to that cheery idea, Tatsu chimed in with,

“Would you be willing to take the drug tonight?”

“Why on Earth would I want to do that?”

“The Master would never willingly take a drug that would force him to relax or anything that could impair his thought process, but! If he were to unknowingly ingest the blood of someone who already had such a drug in their system, he too would feel the effects. We found that out when he ingested the blood of someone drunk one night, and he acted a little, you’ll pardon the expression, tipsy afterwards.” This surprised both men as Jonathan summed up,

“So, if I take the drug, and then he feeds from me, he’ll feel the effects as well? Like shotgunning?” Tatsu nodded, and Jonathan admitted he was curious about such a thing, so he agreed. He spotted the couch over in the corner, that Tommy and Zach had managed to get in there yesterday (those two were becoming strong, despite their size), and Zach managed to clean it up quite well, saying it would be a good spot for Bruce to do his own readings.

“Bruce doesn’t like to do his feedings in public, if we can get Bruce back here, I think it would be a good idea to relax on that couch, so the others won’t notice. Jervis, will you make sure that the couch is OK, and no one is around?” Jervis nodded and Tatsu herself made sure no League members were around to witness what some would see as her subversion of their Master; Erik and Sandra were still pushing Crane’s people to be better at sneaking around, Adrian and Lukas were with the Delta team, going over some engineering exercises, both pale but moving around and helping those who struggled, Jerry was watching over Tommy and Zach while Zach worked on perfecting his wind riding ability, Jason had found that one of the buildings in their territory was apparently over a natural gas line, allowing him to work on something he already had some natural talent in, forging. With all the scrap metal they found around the city, Jason was proving to be quite the blacksmith, making several knives and other weapons for the League, and now Crane’s people, to use. Michael was still with Bruce, going over numbers and back up plans should anything go wrong, and she noticed that, even with two full pints in his body, Bruce still looked a little pale, and kept rubbing his temple as though he had a headache, giving her an opening.

“Master? I apologize for interrupting, but Scarecrow and Hatter wish to see you for a moment.” Bruce and Michael looked up, and Bruce sighed before replying,

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Very good Master.” Tatsu went back to inform the pair, thankful that Crane had already taken the drug, and appeared much more relaxed than she had ever seen him. The pair were awaiting Bruce for a few minutes before he came in, looking as pale and agitated as Tatsu told them.

“Tatsu said you wanted to see me?”

“Yeah, Jervis keeps messing up the stealth course and the bells are driving me crazy so I suggested you show him how it’s done properly.” As usual, Jervis was thrilled at Jonathan’s ability to lie at the drop of a hat.

“Why didn’t you just ask Tatsu to show you? That’s why she was here.”

“Because her body type is different from his, you would have better success at helping Jervis. But we’ll come back to that in a moment; I thought you were going to feed?”

“I did.” Bruce snapped.

“Apparently not enough if you look so pale.” Bruce let out a harsh breath at this and appeared to be holding back his frustrations.

“I’m functioning, now, let me get Tatsu back in here -”

“Oh yeah, because ‘functioning’ is going to help us come up with a proper plan to get into Penguin’s compound without any bloodshed, as you’re hoping for,” Bruce growled at that and Jervis hoped Jonathan knew what he was doing as that growl sounded a little _too_ animalistic to be safe.

“Will you get off my case?”

“I will when you don’t look so green around the gills.” Bruce’s eyes flashed at that and said,

“I’m fine.”

“That may well be the most facetious thing you’ve ever said, seeing as how you are obviously not fine.” Bruce looked like he was about to say something, only for Jervis to accidentally nick his finger on an unseen shard of something on Jonathon’s table. Bruce froze and seemed to now be fighting to remain in control.

“Now that we have proof you didn’t eat as much as you should have, I think you should feed on me as Jervis is a bit squeamish when it comes to his own blood.”

“Let us not forget, my dear Mr. Crane, but I was the one who Jim Gordon both shot in the hand and slit the throat of, not you. I believe I am entitled to feel a little ‘squeamish’ as you put it, about my blood.”

“Why should I feed on you when I can just go hunting?” Bruce’s stubbornness reared its head and, under his mask, Jonathan smiled at Bruce’s predictable protest, and knew how to respond to appeal to Bruce’s noble side.

“Because you look like you are two steps away from charging at Jervis and, seeing how easily he screams when he feels any pain, it might bring others in to see what’s wrong, something you and I both know you want to avoid.” Bruce again growled even as Jervis glared and grumbled at Jonathon’s teasing.

“That is blackmail.”

“It’s also the truth; the others believe this will work because they see you as more than a man, someone who can protect them because he is faster and stronger than the likes of Penguin or James Gordon. The man with the plan who is always in control, and two steps ahead of our enemies, who would gladly put a bullet in any one of us if they caught us. If we want to pull off this insane heist, they need to believe that you, I, and Jervis can handle anything that comes our way, which they may start doubting if they see you looking like this. Lance and Julian won’t tell anyone about the incident, only that you needed to feed, something the others are willing to help with because, again, they see a small amount of blood loss as a small price to pay to keep themselves and everyone else here, safe.” Even Jervis was surprised at how accurate Jonathan’s little speech was about the situation and saw Bruce give in, just as Jonathan knew he would.

“Alright, is there somewhere you can sit or preferably lie down, as I assume you want me to take more than the half-pints I took from the others?” Jonathan nodded over to the couch, and all three moved over to it.

“Uh, Jervis, would you mind waiting outside?”

“Actually, baby, I think it would be a good idea for him to stay as he can pull you off if either of us gets too… over-zealous.” Jonathan then pulled his mask off, and lounged in a corner of the couch, looking a fair bit like a king. Bruce wanted to protest but knew that the Scarecrow was just as stubborn as him, and he wanted to get back to his own duties as quickly as possible, and so turned to Jervis.

“If it looks like I’m taking too much, do you know how to grip my jaw to make it swing open?” Jervis nodded as he sat in the other corner, meaning Bruce was to sit betwixt them (and he really needed to stop hanging around Jervis so much if he was starting to use words like ‘betwixt’), not that he had any doubts in the first place that was going to be the arrangement. He sighed, sat down, and noticed Jonathan lean his head back to give better access to his neck, and could feel his own dead pulse start to race, as it often did when he fed from the neck, but he said,

“Jervis, I am going to depend heavily on you to make sure I don’t take too much as Jonathan seems rather determined I take from the neck, which makes it both easier, and a lot more dangerous. The veins in our arms can only give so much before they collapse, but the veins in our necks are meant to continuously pump blood for obvious reasons, meaning it is much trickier to gauge precisely how much blood is being taken. I will try to limit it to five strong pulls, but if it looks like I’m trying to take more, force my jaw open, as the blood flow will stop. I’m not sure why, but it has happened before when one of the League had to pry me off; Sandra thinks it has something to do with not wasting blood.” Jervis looked concerned as he glanced at Jonathan, hoping to convince him to let Bruce feed from an arm instead of the neck, but Jonathan was undeterred, leaning forward, but not too into the vampire. Bruce leaned forward until he and Jonathan were chest to chest, startling blue eyes to dark green, which seemed to be lighting up, and he tilted his head before opening his mouth, allowing Jonathan to get a glimpse of sharp fangs before they dove into his neck.

“Ah!”

“Are you alright, little rabbit?”

“I’m fine Jervis, it’s more like a pinch, than someone actually biting into you. I can feel him pulling my blood into his mouth, I think I should be somewhat disconcerted at the sensation, but… fuck, but I was right, that night I saw you feeding on Adrian, that was euphoria, more potent than happiness, or bliss, fuck, actually closer to almost ecstasy in the sensation.” Jervis noticed that Jonathan did indeed look more like he was experiencing a very good orgasm, as opposed to being a meal to a vampire. He put one of his hands on Bruce’s throat after the second pull, using it to keep track of how much blood he was taking, and used his other hand to cup his chin, ready, if necessary, to force the jaw open. After he felt the fifth pull and Jonathan started looking paler than normal, he gently applied pressure until Bruce started to let go, making both boys whimper, but Jervis gently shushed them. He noticed however that, before he fully pulled away, Bruce licked at the open wound, causing it to close and give Jonathan a small case of shivers. He pulled Bruce back until Bruce was leaning into him now, and Jonathan looked rather blissed-out, even more so than when he had taken the drug. The three sat like that a moment until Bruce tapped the arm around his shoulders to be let up. As he stood, however, he was suddenly confronted with a dizzy sort of sensation and all but plopped back onto Jervis.

“How you feeling, baby?” Jonathan asked, still sounding blissed out, but Bruce could hear the smirk in his voice without really looking.

“What did you take before I came in?”

“It’s along the same lines as CBD, with one or two differences, but nothing to worry your little head over; nothing harmful,” Jonathan explained as he stretched forward to lay on Bruce’s chest, tucking his head under Bruce’s chin. Bruce thought for a moment, and then proclaimed,

“I am going to kick Tatsu’s ass once I regain control of my limbs, followed swiftly by you two idiots for going along with this.” Jonathan shrugged, not entirely convinced Bruce could kick Tatsu’s ass, but Jervis protested,

“Why? Because we were concerned enough for your well-being to trick you? While also making sure no one saw you in your moment of weakness?”

“I know my limits, Jervis.”

“Knowing them and accepting them are two different things, little Jabberwock, and if we must be forced to pull such trickery to make you rest when needed, then so be it.” Jervis moved his hands so one was petting Jonathan’s hair, and the other was petting Bruce’s.

“If you think-”

“Save it, baby, you have been firing on all cylinders for who knows how long, and after what happened with Langstrom’s formula, you needed a real break where you don’t think or do anything for a little while. As your partner, it’s my job to call you on your bullshit and when to tell you to stop being so damn bull-headed, and I am going to damn well do it. Now, you will probably be feeling like this for at least another half an hour if not longer, just relax and enjoy it; Carrie is with Langstrom, who seems quite taken with her so I wouldn’t worry about her, Jason is tinkering with something, Tommy and Zach are being watched over by Jerry, and the League is keeping a look-out over the rest of the territory. Don’t worry so much, while your League looks after everyone else, Jervis and I will look after you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo hoo! Nothing like a new chapter to bring in a new year! This year has been rough on every single one of us, between the fires in Australia, Covid, riots in the USA that almost tore the country apart, getting rid of a psychotic man-child (no offence, Trump supporters, but I'm allowed to my opinion on the man too), and now, as a last hurrah, a volcano going off in Hawaii. So long 2020, 2021, we welcome you with open arms!
> 
> I decided to add Man-Bat because I recently watched Beware the Batman and I liked how he was portrayed so I decided to add him and heads-up, I'm thinking of adding Metamorpho as well. I honestly don't know if many people like this but, for once, I don't care; I like it and I enjoy writing the chapters in my downtime from work to take my mind off everything so... yeah.
> 
> Happy 2021 everyone!


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